What is the difference between "Windows phone 8 app" and "Windows store App"?

Question

All these days I was thinking that Microsoft made Windows 8 as universal operating system for the various device like smart phone, tablet, surface tablet, desktop.

My assumption went wrong.

Windows RT runs on tablet  and Windows 8 Pro runs on desk top, (windows RT and Windows 8 pro are different version of windows 8 OS).

Window Phone 8 OS is the second generation mobile operating system from Microsoft which runs under the mobile hardware.

Windows has got two different stores for Windows phone 8 App and Windows store app.

I started developing windows store app thinking that it will run on windows 8 phone. I really disappointed.

In case of android and IOS phone and tab share the same OS and single app run on both tab and phone. I am not sure why does Microsoft did not developed window 8 OS like that. I understand that internally windows phone 8 uses windows 8 kernel but still it is different operating system.

Correct me if I am wrong.

Answer 1

You have answered your own question... so what is the new question?

When programming Windows Store apps you will (if not doing anything special) be able to run them on computers and tablets. Windows Phone apps will run on phones.

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Answer 2

Can iOS and Android apps run on PCs? No. Microsoft treat tablets as PCs rather than as 'large phones', which is why the split is between PC/tablet and phone rather than PC and tablet/phone.

WP8 is very similar to W8/RT in terms of developing. If your app works in Windows RT it can be ported to Windows Phone quite easily (though some things will need to be changed depending on what you app does and how it's coded).

So the Windows ecosystem has a big advantage over iOS and Android - create 1 app and with a simple port it will run on all PCs, tablets, and Windows Phones. To do that with other ecosystems you'd have to create two completely separate applications.

In short, if you can create a Windows Store app you should be able to port that app to Windows Phone with no serious issues.

Answer 3

Please find also this link: Metro UI and Windows Phone . It references material with respect to developing on the Microsoft platforms, rationalizes the differences one has to cope with and explains how to take them into account.