It all started somewhat innocently enough – man gets phone, man doesn't like phone, man slags off phone on Twitter. We've all done it. Problem is, we don't all have 24,196 people hanging on every 140 characters we say.

If you haven't got anything nice to say

The Sunday before last, Stephen Fry posted his first views of RIM's BlackBerry Storm touchy feely phone on Twitter, and they weren't exactly positive:

"Been playing with the BB Storm. Shockingly bad. I mean embarrassingly awful. Such a disappointment. Rushed out unfinished. What a pity x"

Yeah. That's not exactly an endorsement you can see RIM putting on the box.

Ignoring the fact that it's completely over the top – the Storm does have its issues, but surely the fact that the iPhone 3G barely lasts a day even with moderate use could also be considered embarrassingly awful and shockingly bad – are Stephen Fry's words enough to put off potential punters?

Gadget Killer. Run run run run run run run away

The BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones seems to think so, claiming that Fry's "short bursts of instant reaction were then recycled and passed on by other Twitter users. As the 'Twitterati' tend to be early adopters who are likely customers for new smartphones, this is a more important audience than its numbers might suggest."

In a response to Cellan-Jones, Fry disputed his influence was that great, and if it indeed was then it may lead him to self-censor.

However – Garry Glitter excepted – there's no such thing as bad publicity. Not only do 25,000 people now know that there's a touchscreen BlackBerry available but they may now go and take a look for themselves. Perhaps even use their brains and decide whether it's the right phone for them, rather than just blindly listening to the views of someone they don't know, even if they are fairly amusing.

Fry's right about the lack of Wi-Fi on the Storm, though. That is weird.