Windows CE Versus Windows Mobile

Windows CE is one of Microsoft’s two embedded OS platforms. (The other is Windows XP Embedded.) Windows CE contains many components and options, and can be used for making many types of special-purpose devices, such as PDAs, music players, Windows terminals, and industrial controls, and is licensed directly to device manufacturers. Windows CE devices may have radically different user interfaces (UIs), or in some cases, no UI at all.

Microsoft also offers a series of device platforms or kits that allow OEMs to jump-start development of certain types of devices. These device platforms provide a specific implementation of an embedded OS, such as Windows CE, that Microsoft has already customized for specific hardware and further customized with components for the device’s application. For example, the Windows Mobile platform is based on Windows CE and is intended for building handheld mobile devices. For one such handheld mobile device—the Pocket PC (PPC)—Microsoft builds an OS image from components of the full Windows CE OS, but targets only the Intel ARM processor. It then goes further and adds components not in the bare OS, such as versions of Outlook, Word, and Excel tailored for mobile use. For a second Windows Mobile-based device, the Smartphone, Microsoft performs similar customization but with application components designed for a specialized UI based on the smaller phone displays and phone keypads for navigation.