Applause

For a long time I was really uninterested in the debate about which was better, Microsoft or Apple. Windows was evidently more clever, at least in one sense, as it could run on all sorts components - indeed, I built three PCs from bits and pieces I'd bought and Windows happily booted up and ran them all together - whereas Apple's operating system only ran on Apple hardware. MS Office was clearly superior to Apple's offering but then Macs were better for graphic design software. I didn't want to argue: I was a Windows/Office user and that was that.

When Apple bought out the iPod I waited to buy something equivalent by another manufacturer but when it became evident that no one was going to match it - at least on the software side - then I bought one and I've had one ever since, upgrading every couple of years. There was no newfound passion for Apple, though; I did have an iPhone 4, but I got fed up with it and moved to Android.

During all that time, though, what has struck me is how Apple has always seemed to make better decisions than Microsoft. I don't mean around their core products, software or hardware, but where they were buying in services. Advertising is a good example: Apple hired Mitchell and Webb for a series of brilliant adverts aimed squarely at knocking Microsoft, while Microsoft countered with an advert where they built a shop in your front room, which if nothing else, was a bit creepy.

The reason I've written all of the above, is to get 'round to the subject of the iPhone camera, a component which Apple, like other 'phone manufacturers, buy in. How and why do Apple do it so much better? My first date with the Minx was to a concert and while were there, we both took photos, her on her iPhone and me on my then state of the art Android 'phone. All her photos came out better.

As this phenomenon repeated itself over the weeks and months I bought a Samsung camera in order to try and match her photos. Still I had this nagging concern that the camera on her iPhone was better. In the end, a couple of weeks ago, I caved and bought an iPhone 6. Tonight, to prove a point to myself, I went and took this lowlight photo in the garden using the 'phone, a picture that I know from experience my Samsung camera would have struggled with.

I don't know how Apple do it. It's a fairly level playing field. In the same way that Microsoft could have hired better advertisers, surely other 'phone manufacturers can buy in better lenses? But in all the research I did, I couldn't find any articles or reviews that pointed my to a 'phone with a better camera. And I'm bloody delighted with the iPhone.

PS I have become properly Appled, though. After twenty odd tears of loyalty to Windows, which I started using in 1990, I finally switched to Apple for everything, this year, when I admitted to myself that my ongoing dislike and irritation with Windows 8 wasn't going to subside.