Description

A few days before writing this article I was thinking that Microsoft built Windows 8 as a universal operating system for all devices, like Desktop, Smart Phone, Surface Tablet. But my assumption was wrong, because the Window Phone 8 OS is the second generation of mobile operating systems from Microsoft that runs under the mobile hardware but Windows RT and Windows 8 OS that are different versions of the Windows 8 OS runs on Desktops & Tablets respectively. Windows Store Apps are different from Windows Phone 8 Applications, they are totally different depending on their platforms, UI, API's and so on. Windows Phone 8 applications only run on Windows Phone 8 and Windows Store Applications only run on Windows RT and Windows 8. But this doesn't meant that they don't have any similarity. Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 / Windows RT have the same Kernel.

Some differences between Windows Store App & Windows Phone 8 App

1. App Store

• Windows Store App
  
  The Windows Store is growing day by day; according to WinBeta, the Windows Store has nearly 109,939 total apps. Its apps are easily installed via the Windows Store app on your Windows 8 machine. You can install it only via Windows Store and can also upload your apps to the store that will go under the certification process.

• Windows Phone 8 Marketplace
  
  Microsoft has announced in their blog post that Windows Phone 8 Marketplace has crossed the figure of 160,000+ apps and games. Also, the apps in the Windows Store currently drive more than 200 million monthly downloads, with a 2.5x increase in daily revenue since the launch of Windows Phone 8. Assuming the growth continues, it should be north of 3x by the holiday sales cycle.

2. Platform

• Windows 8 Platform
  
  You can develop Windows Store App using XAML with C#/VB.NET/C++, HTML/JavaScript/CSS , Embarcadero Prism and so on, designed mainly for Touch.

• Windows Phone 8 Developer Platform
  
  You can develop Windows Phone 8 App using:

3. API

Both platforms support various API's.