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Digital Economy

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Frontside March 2009 • Vol.9 Issue 3 Page(s) 15 in print issue
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Digital Economy

Job Of The Month

If you are a Guitar Hero maniac, then grab your plastic ax and head to the oddest job interview you may ever have. Activision subsidiary Infinity Ward needs temp testers for Guitar Hero titles in Foster City, Calif. The job qualifications are unique, to say the least. In addition to knowledge of Excel, Word, and bug testing software, you also should be able to pass specific GH competency prerequisites. Infinity Ward is looking for gamers who can play one of the following challenges at Expert level: the GH3 track “Raining Blood” on guitar; GH World Tour track “Hot for Teacher” on guitar; World Tour track “Damn It” on drums; or World Tour track “Heartbreaker” on microphone. For experienced game testers, however, the bar is a little lower. They will accept your playing through any one of these challenges at the Hard setting. We have to think there will be a lot of Red Bull and Monster drinks involved in the interview process. No word on whether carpal tunnel syndrome insurance is provided.

http://jobs.gamasutra.com/jobseekerx/viewjobrss.asp?cjid=17538&accountno=101

Raw Numbers

32%
Percent of college students who use Gmail as their primary email account (eROI)
www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=96664

1,742
Average number of text messages sent or received by users between 13 and 17 years old (Nielsen)
www.nielsen.com/solutions/ShortCodeMarketing.pdf

65%
Percent of Americans who say they cannot live without Internet access. (Intel/Harris)
www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20081215corp.htm?iid=pr1_releasepri_20081215r

10%
Percent growth in 2008 Black Friday Web traffic over 2007 (Nielsen)
www.nielsen-online.com/pr/pr_081201.pdf

Vista’s Crawl to Dominance

Despite criticism of the newest Microsoft operating system, Vista’s share of worldwide and U.S. desktops continues to grow, according to Web analytics firm OneStat.com. Worldwide, Vista’s share of the OS market has increased 7.4% since April 2008.

Desktop OS Market Share (Dec. 2008)	Worldwide	U.S.
Windows XP	72.02%	72.04%
Windows Vista	21.16%	18.21%
Apple Macintosh	3.66%	6.14%
Windows 2000	0.54%	0.98%
Linux	0.47%	0.39%

Source: OneStat.com
www.onestat.com/html/press-release-microsoft-windows-vista-global-usage-share-december-2008.html

Email Failing with Students

For the last decade, email has reigned as the true killer app of the Internet age, but the next generation of digirati may replace the classic Inbox with its phone deck. According to a recent eROI study, only 26% of college students cite email as their preferred mode of digital communication, lagging far behind the 37% who prefer text messages. Most students maintain an email address mostly for communicating with their families (81%). As a marketing channel, email gets a barely passing grade with the college crowd, with 61% saying they rarely or never respond to promotions in their Inbox.

www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=96664

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