Entertainment
Australia pitches for Prince Harry’s stag party
Canberra, Nov 30 (IANS) The Australian government has made a pitch to Britain’s Prince Harry to host his stag party and honeymoon.
Australian Tourism Minister Steven Ciobo confirmed he had written to Clarence House following the prince’s engagement to American actress Meghan Markle.
The couple, who have been dating since July 2016, will marry next spring. They will live at Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace in London.
“Australia would be honoured to welcome Prince Harry and Markle to celebrate some small part of their wedding with us,” Ciobo said in a statement on Thursday.
He said tourism officials were prepared to design the “ultimate Australian experience” for the pair. Ciobo’s pitch drew a mixed response on social media, the BBC reported.
Recommended activities for Prince Harry’s pre-wedding celebrations included a James Bond-style jetpack adventure, dune-buggying and barramundi fishing, according to an itinerary drawn up by Tourism Australia.
“They could even do a helicopter crawl… where they visit various iconic Australian pubs in the Top End (Northern Territory),” Ciobo told the Nine Network.
He also envisaged a “perfect honeymoon” for the couple in a luxury lodge near landmarks such as Uluru or the Great Barrier Reef.
Some Australians expressed concern over who would pay for such a trip, but others liked the idea. “I don’t believe we as taxpayers should be forking the bill for it,” one person said on social media.
Another wrote: “He can come to my place. I’ll supply the Crownies (beer), he can roast the chook (chicken).”
Prince Harry last travelled to Australia in June to promote the Invictus Games. He and Markle made their first public appearance as a couple in September.
–IANS
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Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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