That's an odd selection

The BBC's tech blogger, Rory Cellan-Jones decided he'd see 'What makes a clever phone?'. So he compared three devices Nokia's new N8, the Samsung Omnia 7 - one of the new Windows Phone 7 handsets, and Apple's iPhone 4. The comparisons are basic and hardly in depth, here are the three criteria that Rory Cellan-Jones tested for:
(1) Send an e-mail, with a photo attached
(2) Take a photo and upload it to Facebook
(3) Use the phone to check the time of a film and work out how to get there

So two photo related and none related to making a phone-call from Contacts or using athe device as a apeaker-phone or running Twitter or any number of other applications.

Only at the end of his article does Rory Cellan-Jones manage to mention Apple & Microsoft's biggest competitor

'One operating system I haven't mentioned here is Google's Android. It has proved itself as an innovative and accessible platform - and one which leading handset manufacturers are happy to offer their customers.'

Unsurprisingly the commnets to this post were unflattering about the lack of an Android device being reviewed, here's just two examples:

'Media person picks Apple shock. Any invention there? Any interest in controlling your device as opposed to conforming to what it offers you?

Thought not.


Oliver wrote:

Typical useless BBC blog. Don’t bother to compare the fastest growing OS, that would be too hard.

Maybe Apple were paying him… Come on BBC sort it out and re-do this with Android.'

It would seem that Rory Cellan-Jones got a little upset by the negative comments and just had to explain:

'Update 1500: Lots of people seem angry that I haven't tested an Android phone in this post. Perhaps they haven't read to the end where I praise Google's operating system, even going so far as to suggest that Nokia might do well to adopt it instead of Symbian

Just to be clear, I did not test an Android phone for two reasons. The post was not meant to be about the smartphone market as a whole, but about two new phones with new operating systems, and how they matched up to the competition. And if I'd had an Android phone in my hands over the weekend I would have used that instead - but I'd lent the Samsung Galaxy to a colleague who was testing it for another BBC outlet.'

A couple of points Rory Cellan-Jones. First, I did read the whole inadequate piece and your few lines praising Android struck me as very last minute thinking. Second the BBC's fetish for Apple equipment does leave many wondering the BBC cover technology from a totally unbiased viewpoint; blog entries like your one just add fuel to that fire.

UPDATE 11:50: Thanks to Bobski for reminding me that if a fair comparison of big market players was to be undertaken then iPhone, Windows 7 & Symbian should have been joined by Android device and of course a Blackberry.