If it is your job to select the platform to use on devices for a new project, you may be confused about which one you want. The choice is relatively simple. If you are writing applications for a device with telephone capability that does not have a stylus and that can be operated one-handed from the keypad, Smartphone (or, to use the modern terminology, Windows Mobile 6 Standard) is the correct choice. If you are writing for custom hardware, obviously you must use Windows CE.
The choice between using Pocket PC (now called Windows Mobile 6 Classic or Professional) and Windows CE can be a little more complicated. Most of the large enterprise mobile device manufacturers, such as Intermec and Symbol, offer Pocket PC-style devices that come with a choice of Windows Mobile or Windows CE running on identical hardware. The implementation of Windows CE used on these devices usually uses the standard graphical Windows-style shell (one of the components included in Platform Builder) so that devices from different manufacturers tend to give a similar user experience.
When you compare the way the standard Windows CE shell works to the way the Windows Mobile for Pocket PC shell works, you see the obvious difference is in the screen layout and the way you start programs. On Pocket PC, the Start button is at the top, and menus are displayed from the upper-left corner downward, as shown in figure below.
To select a menu item, you tap once with the stylus. All applications running on a Pocket PC display objects in full-screen mode (except for a very few types of pop-up dialog boxes).
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