No matter how much you might dislike Microsoft and all its creations, you have to admire their pluck for calling in none other than Stephen Fry for today’s Windows Phone 7 launch event.
Fry is well known as an ardent supporter of all things Apple, but that reputation is to some degrees a creation of Fry’s own fans.
The thing is, he doesn’t just support Apple and OS X; he loves all technology, and like most of us prefers to use the best stuff he can get his hands on. “I’m all for biodiversity in the smartphone market,” he says.
In recent years, of course, that’s happened to be Apple products.
Here’s Fry at this afternoon’s event (filmed by the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones) speaking very frankly about how Microsoft finally “get it”, and better yet understand that in the past, that was the thing they failed to do:
The fact that Fry has been using Windows Phone 7 for a week, and is prepared to tell his 1.8 million-strong Twitter following that he likes it is review enough for many people.
Microsoft doesn’t always get its PR right. Remember those videos starring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld? Yeah.
Microsoft having the chutzpah to ask Stephen Fry to launch their product is one thing. Him agreeing to do so – and liking what he sees – is quite another.
Giles Turnbull is a freelance writer in England. He also writes for the Press Association and The Morning News. You can find out more at his website, and follow him on Twitter @gilest.
