As far as I can tell, this annoys the crap out of people that do notice and (at max) gives no real benefit to people who don't notice:

Why did Microsoft decide to make the "X" on Windows Mobile (or CE before that) not close, but only hide the application, and thus keep cluttering up your memory?

• WM wants you to go to the Control Panel -> Memory and "Do you really want to" shut down the app.

• Pretty much every WM application I've seen that did not come from Microsoft has a "Quit" menu choice.

• The number of task managers out there that let you quit programs is larger than the count of emails from African bank managers that want me to take care of some millions of bucks that belonged to a deceased customer of theirs.

• My new HTC even comes with a close-able (not closeable, though) task manager pre-installed.

But still today, Word Mobile just wants to hide, not be closed.

I don't want to get a "That's M$hit, get used to it" answer; I really want to know:

What in the world is the reason for this decision, and even more, for still sticking with it?