Entertainment
Great to be back with Miss India, but as mentor: Rakul Preet
Mumbai, Jan 31 (IANS) Actress Rakul Preet Singh, who was a contestant at the Miss India pageant back in 2011, is set to be a mentor for the pageant this time. She says she is glad to come full circle and help the aspirants in their journey.
Rakul Preet, whose next Bollywood outing is the forthcoming movie “Aiyaary”, is the south zone mentor for the fbb Colors Femina Miss India 2018. Pooja Hegde is the west zone mentor, Pooja Chopra is east zone mentor and Neha Dhupia will take care of the north zone.
“It’s great to be back in this form where I can bring in something from my side for the contestants. It’s like a circle you complete. It has still not settled in my head that it has been so many years… 2011, and it has been seven years already,” Rakul said in a promotional video.
“Now I am back as a mentor, but I am really looking forward to the journey and hoping to bring in the best from my end for everyone,” she added.
Last year, Haryana girl Manushi Chhillar brought the Miss World crown back to India after 17 years.
For the 55th edition of the Miss India pageant, the auditions will begin next month in 30 states. The mentors will select one ambassador who will represent their state at the national finals.
Rakul says participating in the competition was life-changing for her.
“I was very naive. I was like a kid. This was the first pageant I attended. I think it helped me prepare for the world outside. When you start working, and start working in films, you meet so many new people, so it’s a great platform for the exposure that you need at that age, and well, ever since life has been great,” she said.
With a busy career in the southern and Hindi film industries, Rakul says “Miss India was my stepping platform”.
Her advice for contestants?
“There’s only one thing takes you places, and that’s your belief in yourself and a lot of confidence. Don’t get bogged down… You have to understand that there’s only going to be one winner. And I didn’t win during my time. Still, that’s not the end. Just keep going, believe in yourself and winning and losing is a part of life.”
All finalists of fbb Colors Femina Miss India 2018 will undergo rigorous training and grooming sessions from the best experts in the industry before the grand finale in June.
–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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