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Obama’s India trip: US analysts cautiously optimistic
Washington: President Barack Obama’s upcoming trip to India could well lead to deeper cooperation between the two countries as it was in their mutual interest, analysts suggested though some cautioned against high expectations.
“Obama and Modi See Mutual Benefit in Breaking More Ice,” said the influential New York Times in a story from New Delhi suggesting “Beneath the surface of the two leaders’ personal relationship are the shifting tectonic plates of geopolitics.”
“With the expansion of Chinese power into the Indian Ocean, American and Indian interests in the region are gradually converging,” it said.
Another “reason for a closer embrace of Washington by New Delhi is that the members of the new political elite around Mr. Modi have far deeper ties to the United States than their predecessors, from the left-leaning and long-dominant Indian National Congress party,” the Times suggested.
Many of Modi’s supporters, it noted “are Gujarati businessmen who have prospered in the United States and preach the successful immigrants’ gospel of free enterprise.”
Ashley J. Tellis, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, felt Obama’s return to India carries “the hope that Washington and New Delhi may succeed in placing their cooperation on firmer foundations.”
But “achieving this objective will require reconciling American expectations of exchange-based relations with the Indian desire for a no-obligations partnership,” he wrote.
“This challenge is best handled through a set of complementary policies in Washington and New Delhi that together are most aptly characterized as ‘unity in difference’,” Tellis suggested.
“Achieving a genuine strategic partnership between the United States and India is challenging, but it will be a worthwhile investment in the long-term security and relative power positions of both India and the United States,” he wrote.
Tellis recommended that Washington should act to deepen the relationship by strengthening India’s capabilities without any expectations of clear quid pro quos.
New Delhi in turn “should articulate a geopolitical vision that preserves a special priority for the United States and look for creative ways to demonstrate strategic solidarity with Washington,” he suggested.
However, Michael Kugelman, a senior associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, cited four reasons to keep expectations from Obama’s India trip in check.
Despite “the hoopla and hype” he suggested in a blog post in the Wall Street Journal, “It will feature much happy talk but few substantive outcomes.”
His reasons: It’s too soon after the Modi-Obama meeting in Washington;
Many of India’s chief priorities are linked to protracted political debates in Washington; the lingering influence of inconvenient Indian policies and bilateral tensions.
“None of this is to suggest that Obama’s visit will not yield deliverables,” Kugelman wrote.
“We can expect modest accords on defence, economics, and energy – but nothing like the civil nuclear deal of 2008, which some described as the cornerstone of an emerging strategic partnership,” he wrote.
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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