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Vienna world No. 1, Hyderabad best in India for quality of living
London: Austrian capital Vienna emerged as the city with the best quality of living in the world, while Hyderabad, ranked 138th, was the best Indian city to live in, according to the Mercer Quality of Living Rankings 2015 released on Wednesday.
Overall, European cities dominate the rankings along with major cities in Australia and New Zealand, according to the Mercer website.
Zurich (Switzerland), Auckland (New Zealand) and Munich (Germany) are in the second, third, and fourth positions respectively. In the fifth place, Vancouver (Canada) is the highest-ranking city in North America and the region’s only entry in the top 10.
Singapore, in 25th place, is the highest ranking city in Asia.
Among Indian cities, Pune (145) came in second to Hyderabad. Both cities rank higher for quality of living than the country’s more traditional business centres, Mumbai (152) and New Delhi (154). Considerable rise in population in Mumbai and New Delhi in the last few decades has increased existing problems, including access to clean water, air pollution and traffic congestion.
Sri Lankan capital Colombo, with a rank of 132nd, is the city with the best quality of living in South Asia, while Japanese capital Tokyo (44) topped the ranking among East Asian cities.
The report also took note of the emerging cities in East Asia: Cheonan (98) in South Korea, and Taichung (99) in Taiwan.
Chinese cities Xi’an and Chongqing (both ranked 142nd) are also emerging as business destinations. Their main challenges to improving quality of living standards are clean water provision and air pollution.
However, advances in the telecommunication and consumer sectors have had some positive offsetting effects on their ranking.
Despite concerns about economic growth, the cities of western Europe continue to offer a stable environment for employees and employers. Western European cities take seven places in the top 10. The lowest ranking cities in western Europe are Belfast (63) in Northern Ireland and Athens (85) in Greece.
San Francisco (27), Boston (34), and Honolulu (36) are the highest-ranking US cities.
Dubai (74) ranks highest for quality of living across the Middle East and Africa region.
Ranked 230th, Baghdad is the lowest ranking city in the region and on the overall list.
The annual survey is conducted to “help multinational companies and other employers compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments”.
Slagin Parakatil, principal at Mercer said: “Cultures, societies, and comparatively different climates, as well as political instability, high crime rates, and poor infrastructure can be difficult to navigate and settle down in for employees and their families.”
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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