Windows CE和Windows Mobile等的關系

Windows CE和Windows Mobile，Pocket PC，SmartPhone的關系

Often Windows CE, Windows Mobile, and Pocket PC are used interchangeably. This practice is not entirely accurate. Windows CE is a modular/componentized operating system that serves as the foundation of several classes of devices. Some of these modules provide subsets of other components' features (e.g. varying levels of windowing support; DCOM vs COM), others which are mutually exclusive (Bitmap or TrueType font support), and others which add additional features to another component. One can buy a kit (the Platform Builder) which contains all these components and the tools with which to develop a custom platform. Applications such as Excel Mobile/Pocket Excel are not part of this kit. The older Handheld PC version of Pocket Word and several other older applications are included as samples, however.

Windows Mobile is best described as a subset of platforms based on a Windows CE underpinning. Currently, Pocket PC (now called Windows Mobile for Pocket PC), SmartPhone, and PocketPC Phone Edition are the three main platforms under the Windows Mobile umbrella. Each platform utilizes different components of Windows CE, as well as supplemental features and applications suited for their respective devices.

Pocket PC and Windows Mobile is a Microsoft-defined custom platform for general PDA use, and consists of a Microsoft-defined set of minimum profiles (Professional Edition, Premium Edition) of software and hardware that is supported. The rules for manufacturing a Pocket PC device are stricter than those for producing a custom Windows CE-based platform. The defining characteristics of the pocket pc are the digitizer as the primary Human Interface Device and its extremely portable size.

The SmartPhone platform is a feature rich OS and interface for cellular phone handsets. SmartPhone offers productivity features to business users, such as email, as well as multimedia capabilities for consumers. The SmartPhone interface relies heavily on joystick navigation and PhonePad input. Devices running SmartPhone do not include a touchscreen interface. SmartPhone devices generally resemble other cellular handset form factors, whereas most Phone Edition devices use a PDA form factor with a larger display.

Windows Mobile 5 supports USB 2.0 and new devices running this OS will also conform to the USB Mass Storage Class, meaning the storage on PPC can be accessed from any USB-equipped PC, without requiring any extra software, except requiring a compliant host. In other words, you can use it as a flash drive.