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Those familiar with Microsoft’s naming conventions were taken aback when the software giant introduced Windows Mobile 6 a few weeks ago. You see, after years of offering three versions of the Windows Mobile platform—Smartphone, Pocket PC, and Pocket PC Phone—Redmond surprisingly, and somewhat perplexingly, chose to shake things up by going in what seemed to be a not very intuitive new direction.

With Windows Mobile 6, Smartphone becomes Standard, Pocket PC Phone Edition turns into Professional, and Pocket PC ends up as Windows Mobile 6 Classic. Standard, as with Smartphone, designates Microsoft-based handsets without a touch screen; Professional, as with Pocket PC Phone Edition, cellular-wireless handhelds or smartphones with touch screens; and Classic, as with Pocket PC, the ever dwindling number of new non-cellular wireless PDAs.

The problem is Professional, Standard and Classic don’t inherently tell you anything about the power and capabilities of a device, while Smartphone, Pocket PC Phone Edition and Pocket PC, with their long history, do.

Or don’t they?

Brighthand points out a posting on Microsoft's Windows Mobile Team Blog that explains the reasoning behind this change in nomenclature

According to Microsoft developer Mike Calligaro, there’s a method to this apparent madness.

The problem was that we were distinguishing our two products with the names Pocket PC and Smartphone, but the rest of the world was using the term Smartphone for things that we were calling Pocket PCs.” We kept having conversations that went like this,

Customer: “I tried to put this Smartphone software on my device and it didn’t work.”

Us: “You have a Pocket PC, not a Smartphone. You need to use the Pocket PC version of the software.”

Customer: “No I don’t. I have a Smartphone. It even says so on the box.”

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So it appears Pocket PC and Smartphone is confusing to some consumers. This was likely exasperated by the welcome – to Microsoft – increased popularity of devices built on Windows Mobile among handset makers, carriers and, especially, consumers. Also, smartphones in general are no longer the exclusive domain of the high-end - usually more experienced - user, who could more easily recognize the difference between a cellular-wireless handheld (Pocket PC Phone) and a Smartphone, as prices have dropped considerably over the last year or so.

Because of these factors Microsoft decided the names Pocket PC and Smartphone had to go. Anyway, with Pocket PCs trending towards becoming more and more like Smartphones, someday the only differentiator between the two will be one does and the other doesn't have a touch screen.

The theory is that while Standard and Professional may be confusing now, eventually they won't. Calligaro explains:

It would probably be worse to change from Smartphone/Pocket PC to something that makes sense now, only to change again to Standard and Professional in the future. So the real choice was between suffering through the Smartphone confusion for longer or suffering through the Standard confusion now, with the understanding that it would eventually make sense to people.

Calligaro also points out in his post that we can thank the company's fraternity of marketers for not just the creation of Windows Mobile Standard, Professional and Classic brands, but the name Windows Mobile 6 as well; something his developer bones felt hesitant about.

Calling the most recent version of Windows Mobile, which has a lot of new features, Windows Mobile 6, would seem to makes sense. After all, the previous edition was Windows Mobile 5, right?

However, from his perspective this is confusing. You see, Windows Mobile 6 is not based on the most recent version of Windows CE, version 6, but (rightly) on the previous (more stable) edition, Windows CE 5. So while Microsoft developed Windows CE 6 and Windows Mobile 6 simultaneously, the underlying technology behind the two platforms don't exactly line up.

As the markets point out, however, this is not something regular Joes care about. We prefer that our smartphones perform as advertised, whatever the name of the platform they run on.