OK but so could a fidget spinner or an air fryer.
The question is if it does or not, not if it “could”.

they are definitely not doing everything they can to increase their conversion rate.

Oh you mean like prompting users to buy extra services all the time?
Yes they are actually doing exactly that.

Cost of living matters too.

Of course it does, the article also mention that, did you even read the article?

WTF?
The article even state this fact as a barrier to attract scientists to Europe from USA.
But here you go:

https://www.coursera.org/articles/research-scientist-salary?campaignid=20858198824&adgroupid=&device=c&keyword=&matchtype=&network=x&devicemodel=&creativeid=&assetgroupid=6490027433&targetid=&extensionid=&placement=&gad_campaignid=20854471652

Lyft: $175,144
Flexport: $174,532
Meta: $171,477
Netflix: $168,720
StubHub: $167,700
Google: $167,427
DoorDash: $166,792
eBay: $166,231
Waymo: $163,156
NVIDIA: $162,497   

Everybody who has followed this issue even superficially knows this!!
Universities in USA also pay more, because they are very commercially oriented, and American universities compete on prestige, and they have more money than other universities around the world.

Try to look it up, and find info to the contrary if you don’t believe it. This is freaking common knowledge!

Of course I do, but ChatGPT still has a free option. And the basis to compare paid subscriptions when there is also a free option stand IMO.
Without a good free option, how would it be only 5% who pay? It’s exactly the same as with Youtube in that regard.

The free option is a form of advertising and allowing people to get to know the service. With Youtube the free option isn’t really free, you pay by allowing advertising.
So by that comparison Youtube is actually the worse free option of the two. And despite that more people pay for ChatGPT.
So your argument that they are not the same, actually makes ChatGPT numbers even more impressive not less.

That’s what we thought last time under Trump. But it turned out most scientists go for the higher wages and budgets in USA.

Are you sure that’s still true

Yes.
A lot of the highest paying research is corporate. And despite the shit Trump is doing, the wages are still higher at for instance universities too.

I have no idea how you can even doubt that, despite Trump is targeting everything that might be humane or to save the earth. Everything that has potential profits will probably receive more. Because USA has become very unattractive in many ways.

Absolutely free healthcare and education are big parts of doing more with less, and quality of life.
But it’s also easier to buy a house or apartment, and quality food is cheaper, and paid holidays and on and on.
We have so many privileges Americans don’t have it’s crazy.

Lower wages and lower research budgets in Europe are very tangible problems.
The reason USA attract so many high level scientists and researchers, is that they throw more money at it.

Despite that, I’m sure most researchers will find that you can do more with less here in Europe, both on research and with your private economy. And quality of life seems to me to be miles ahead compared to USA.

I absolutely answer the questions, what’s your problem?
What part of the question is not answered in my reply?

Am I not free to ad my opinion too?

Paying gives advantages on youtube, just the same as ChatGPT.

Keep it under running water for ½ an hour, at the level that is the most comfortable.
Don’t make it too cold, but cold enough to ease the burning sensation.

If the pain stops before ½ an hour, you can stop.

That’s a weird editorializing of the headline, for an article that describes wide spread use, and a market of rapidly growing value.

For instance a sentence like these:

This is no longer experimentation; it’s habit formation at an unprecedented scale.

This rapid adoption drives real dollars: In the two and a half years since OpenAI’s ChatGPT introduced the public to generative AI, consumer AI has become a multibillion-dollar market.

One of the most surprising findings? Parents are among the most engaged AI users, turning to AI for everyday help.

Even ChatGPT, with its first-mover advantage, only converts about 5% of its weekly active users into paying subscribers

Considering there’s a pretty strong free option, 5% is not bad.
How many pay for using Youtube? IDK but my guess is that it is way less than 5%.
How many pay for using search? My bet is that we are in the thousandth on that. Yet search is profitable!

OP wanted cheaper phones, but phones ARE getting cheaper with better features too.

Well it’s not ALL progress, personally I’d like the notification LED and the mini jack back.
But overall, I think modern smartphones are amazing.

That would be things like not being able to replace the battery.
Fortunately EU is regulating that shit now.

Because the development of new Smartphone SOC has been very strong, and the new ones really are better in multiple ways. The gains are far from minimal. There are also huge improvements in display, camera and modem technology. For the processing power the improvements are especially big when you look at PPW figures.

Regarding cheap phones, you can get very feature rich very usable smartphones dirt cheap now, that are both way better and way cheaper than just a few years ago. It used to be that cheap phones lacked features like GPS and NFS, even motion sensors could be limited, and they certainly didn’t have bluetooth. Now all that is generally included even in cheap phones, and they have good screens too, even a modest IPS screen which is dirt cheap can be pretty good nowadays. So the progress is for all.

My wife just bought a phone that was cheaper than her old phone, but still it’s is way better.

The reason they all make better phones is due to this thing we call competition. If all brands except one stopped making better phones, the one that continues making them better will take marketshare from everybody else, and have by far the best profits, because the highest profits are with the best phones.

PS: Something that is also new in “standard” phones is that they have way better water protection. It used to be you would have to buy an ugly bulky phone to have that, now you can get standard phones with good IPS ratings, so you don’t have to worry about using them in the rain.

Contrary to you, I find the continued development of better phones amazing. Latest phone I bought was twice what I thought I’d ever spend, and that was because I wanted a good camera. The new Cameras are so freaking great, that if you ever tried taking pictures with an old film camera, that needed the film developed at a shop to get them on paper.
What we have now is way beyond what I ever imagined possible, but really so is just about everything with a modern smartphone.
They really are marvels of technology that some people just take for granted.
But research the SOC, The Camera, GPS or the motion sensors, even a modest motion sensor utilize quantum theory technology, comparing the synchronization of 2 meeting light waves, and the feature cost less than a dollar to make!

This is what the future was supposed to be, unfortunately only smartphones have delivered beyond our dreams, everything else is turning to shit.

State subsidies and a huge protected home market.
But to be fair, they really made the most of it. So absolutely also talent.

Yeah farming or mining whatever you can do.
They sell everything for real money, complete accounts with upgraded characters, or rare items or whatever has value in a game.

Interesting. How was this data extracted?
AFAIK Linux is not doing well in China, and China has been known to skew the Steam stats a lot before. China uses bots heavily on Steam for mining in games.
Anyways it’s cool that we can see Linux is doing well on Steam now, despite influential factors like China.

It would be interesting to see the amount of purchases made on Linux vs other operating systems. I think that’s the number that counts more than anything else.