Microsoft Windows Mobile Platform

This post is a continuation of the series exploring mobile technology platforms. For introduction to the series please refer to: "What technology platform to choose for development of mobile applications?"

Other postings in the series:
Mobile Messaging
Mobile Web
Mobile Java
BREW
Symbian
Mobile Linux

Microsoft Windows Mobile Platform

Windows Mobile Platform supports smartphones and Pocket PC PDAs. The platform includes mobile versions of Microsoft Office, Outlook and Internet Explorer. Microsoft Visual Studio is the development environment. The biggest advantage of this platform is a shortened learning curve for those who previously developed desktop applications using the Microsoft set of tools. The drawback is a limited set of smartphones supporting the platform today. A catalog of devices supporting Windows Mobile can be found here.

Smartphone and Pocket PC versions of the platform are not identical. According to Microsoft 85% of APIs are common across the two versions.