Comedian Stephen Fry slams BlackBerry

Britain's most treasured old bean, the institution that is Stephen Fry, has caused a bit of a stir in tech circles this week by slamming the BlackBerry Storm, claiming on his Twitter feed that the new phone was "shockingly bad" and "embarrassingly awful".

Fry's original Twittering read: "Been playing with the BB Storm. Shockingly bad. I mean embarrassingly awful. Such a disappointment. Rushed out unfinished. What a pity."

He added: "Yes, I blame n'works more than RIM. Problems are terrible lag: inaccurate t'screen, awful, slow and fiddly text input. I SO wanted to like it."

GPS busted

"Plus the GPS maps won't work - issue with BIS connections. I see from forums postings this is widespread in the UK. iPhone killer? Ha!"

Fry has over 20,000 followers on Twitter and TechRadar can only imagine the kerfuffle Fry's forthright comments caused when RIM's PR department first got wind of them.

The BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones went so far as to suggest Fry's comments might effectively destroy the Storm's opportunity of any significant commercial success in the UK.

Fry circumspect

Fry was a little more circumspect, telling Cellan-Jones: "If I really thought my influence was that great it might make me a little wary of being quite so definite and it would probably force me to be more specific about all the features/pricing/services, as a responsible tech journalist should be.

"As it is, I hope people know I am no more than an enthusiastic, passionate amateur (I'm including the French sense of the word amateur - lover). It gives me no pleasure to be negative about the BB Storm and I know that many people have been looking forward to receipt of theirs and were very disheartened to hear my loud disappointment.

"But, honestly: play with the Storm for two days as I have and you will admire my patience at not throwing it out of the window..."