[Windows Phone 8 General] GoodDayToDie:
"Windows 8 mobile" is a remarkably (pardon my bluntness) stupid term for this OS. "Windows Phone 8" is very nearly as stupid (and that one is Microsoft's fault), but it does at least have two advantages: it distinguishes the Windows line from the Windows Phone line, and it's official. Besides, if you actually wanted to call something "Windows 8 mobile", it would make at least a *little* bit of sense to apply that term to Windows RT, which is a "mobile" (tablet, specifically) OS that actually looks like, and runs a lot of the same software as, Windows 8.

Suggesting that Windows Phone "is still Windows" is ridiculous, patently absurd on the face of it. They don't have the same UI (even ignoring the desktop, "Metro" apps in Win8 look and are interacted with differently from those on the phone, and the Start screens look and are arranged and interacted with differently). They don't run the same software (even where processor architecture isn't an issue, such as with pure .NET apps), although at some point in the future they may be merged to do so. They don't use the same user model (Windows Phone is a single-user system with only an "unlock the screen" protection; Windows - 8 or any other version of the NT desktop line - is a multi-user operating system where users must log into their accounts to use the system). They don't communicate with other computers the same way (Windows supports "Windows networking", including Homegroups, over SMB; Windows Phone has no SMB support but can act as an MTP client device over USB). They don't use the same security model (there's no support for user-accessible "full-trust" apps on Windows Phone; everything must run in an app sandbox). They don't run on the same hardware... do I really need to go on?

There are really only two meaningful similarities between Windows and Windows Phone (no, Microsoft's bone-headed branding does not meet the bar of "meaningful"). First, they both use the Win32 and WinRT APIs (well, sort of; the phone tries to block access to most of Win32 and is missing some of WinRT that the desktop has, the desktop is missing some of the stuff that the phone has too, though). Second, they both use the NT kernel. That's it. The way they sandbox apps is kind of the same, but only kind of (they don't even use the same capability lists, which incidentally is going to make that hypothetical merging of the app ecosystems kind of tricky). The UI has about in much in common between Windows Phone and Windows as Windows (7 or 8, at least) have in common with OS X.

Android's proper name is "Android" (OK, you can append a version number, or version name, if you want). It runs on the Linux kernel, just like MeeGo, WebOS, Ubuntu, and RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux). Turns out that using the kernel as a determiner of "these operating systems are the same" is a really bad idea. Besides, if you were going to do *that*, then you'd have to argue that Windows Phone is one of the oldest smartphone operating systems, since WP7 runs on the CE kernel whose earlier versions powered handheld "smart" devices clear back to 1996.

As for the apps thing... how many WP apps have you written? Do you actually have the least idea how hard or easy it is? I've been writing WP apps for three years now, and I've also written Android apps and reviewed iOS apps. Neither one has as good of tools, and both require more work on the part of the developer to make the app *work*.

I *told* you the reason! It wasn't a "it's because this or that" in the least. Apparently, though, you are wither too wrapped up in your own prejudices to face facts, or you're illiterate... In any case, MS is spending a ton of money trying to promote WP. I happen to think their marketing sucks, but c'est la vie.