I got some rather eye-popping statistics in from Cable & Wireless today. They talked to over 4,800 consumers and businesses across the UK, India, Spain, Germany and Singapore and ended up with these results:

- Over 42% of Brits check or write emails and 32% doodle while taking part in a conference call

Well, I admit to having done similar. But only when the person on the teleconference is droning on about something I already know. Right?

You’re the same too, yeah?

- 24% of the UK would be happy to deal with a Doctor on a video call

I’m surprised at this one. I have no issue with this. Indeed I’d much prefer a video call with a doctor rather than having to arse around getting to the surgery.

- Over 46 per cent of all respondents from Germany, India, Spain and Singapore check or write emails, while on average 43 per cent surf the net, 17 per cent doodle and 11 per cent have even made another phone call.

Almost every teleconference I’ve been on with more than 5 people seems to feature at least one of the parties having to ‘put himself on mute’ whilst he makes another call. I always find that rather fascinating, given you’re meant to be paying attention to the current call.

Other findings? Heh. Have a read of this one:

- Over a third of respondents in the UK still put on a formal phone voice when answering a call from a number we dont recognise and on telephone conference calls

Heh. Now, I don’t think I do this. But I wonder if, subconsciously, I actually do. Shocking. I think I do.

“Ewan speaking?”

OK let’s talk focus:

- In the UK our concentration and focus on telephone conference calls begins to wane after an average of 23 minutes, but on a video conference call or in a face-to-face meeting our attention span rockets to 35 minutes, putting us on par with Singaporeans who report the longest concentration time on a video conference call at 37 minutes

On a video conference there’s next to no room for staring at the wall, is there? That 23 minute statistic will be heavily relevant to anyone who has to work through 60+ minute teleconferences every week.

- Interestingly, on regular one to one phone calls the average focus in the UK is just nine minutes, a figure our German cousins put to shame with the ability to concentrate for over 16 minutes

This is shocking. Goodness me. Don’t bother with any call longer than 10 minutes in the UK then?

- 87% of Brits claim face to face contact is more likely to lead to a business decision

Aye, I buy that.

- The use of video conferencing solutions in business can save customers at least 25% on their travel costs.

Oh come on, only 25%? And the rest! What about the 12,000 business class flights? x3?

I’ve seen quite a lot of video conferencing services across the years — and the best are the ‘life size’ ones where it really is like being on Star Trek. You feel like you’re actually sitting across the board table from the people in Sydney.

I will need to check out the Cable & Wireless ‘managed video conferencing‘ service and see how that works.

Meanwhile, if you’ve got some 60 minute teleconferences scheduled next week, send the ‘meeting owner’ this post and tell them to keep it to 30 minutes in order to hold the attention of the attendees…

Related posts:

1. Jajah absolutely rocks
2. Getting absolutely hosed by UK networks: Why is it so expensive to call another mobile?
3. Lypp launches genius Outlook plugin for conference calling

It has been reported that in the first half of this year the much-awaited release of the iPhone 5 could take place. With the unveiling of an increased amount of smartphone devices, app markets and high-end technology since the release of the iPhone 4, many are anticipating whether it successor will dominate the market as it did.

The next generation iPhone has been rumoured to include an improved processing chip and graphics core to increase CPU power, not that the power of the iPhone 4 was anything to complain about. Whilst these improvements will be welcomed with open arms by the devoted Apple followers many are still highly impressed with the usability of the iPhone 4.

Its popularity has risen to the point at to which its sales tower over those of likes of RIM and Samsung with a severe margin between it and its nearest competitor. Many will argue contributors to such popularity have been the unique qualities of the phones design and the intuitiveness of the Apple OS. These factors no doubt provide reasoning behind such success but do force one to question how different can the iPhone 5 be?

The iPhone 4 set the standards for smartphone technology and laid the blueprints for its usability with 32GB hard drives, 5MP cameras and 1GHz processors becoming the high-end standard, all due to Apples inclusion of them in the iPhone 4.

The question is where can Apple possibly take us with the next iPhone? This question incites such anticipation in the hearts of smartphone enthusiasts and drives the buzz behind the release of any new technology by Apple.

Could it be possible for the company to expand impressively on the previous technology? Can the spec really be any higher? Will Apple once again re-invent the mobile communication device?

These are all questions driving the minds whose eyes are keenly set on the first half of the calendar year. Get your very own i phone 4 today at phones4u, head over to phones4u.co.uk to see all the different options available to you

This follow-up to the Pre 2 upgrades to a higher-resolution screen, faster processor, auto-focus camera that can record HD video, and adds a front-facing camera for video chat. Other features of this CDMA smartphone are similar, including the webOS platform, touch screen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, WiFi, and 16 GB of memory.

Conference Calls are really making the business meeting that has to be done face to face helped through the business meeting as the audio conferencing has enables the call in the business which is really important able to be done so that any critical situation that arise can be found for the solution. In this case, there would not be any travel needed since everyone is just going to be involved through the notification and also for attending the meeting from their very own computer or the telephone as well. It is pretty much a very efficient time for using the audio conferencing that are required in the business as it is being done in a direct face to face meeting.

Conference Calling is really a very efficient tool that is going to make a lot of things becoming so much easier as it will be used to make the important business effectively organized in a period that are relatively short so that the participation are really encouraged so that through the visual aids facility the audio conference will give different sensation during the meeting. It is no longer necessary to have the entire things as it is going to reap you so many benefits as the nest schedule or other matter can be obtained just by playing the audio conferencing only.

Without accurate measurements of each employee’s working time you will waste tons of money paying wages for hours that were not actually worked. If your company needs to scale back and become as efficient as possible right now, getting the most efficient employee time clock system is very important.