A quote from the article:
"That doesn't mean the Windows Phone operating system is dead, just that Microsoft won't be using it as a brand in marketing materials in future. "
This is pretty much what I've been saying all along. We've already seen how much confusion this move has created in this thread alone, with people assuming that calling it all the same thing, means it is all the same thing. It's not surprising that people who understand what an OS is would suspect that.
To me this sounds pretty confusing, even more confusing than Windows RT. I wonder how this is intended to help MS sell Windows (a.k.a. WP+RT) and Windows (a.k.a. the original Windows) to the masses.
Since all versions of "Windows" will run the same ModerUI apps, calling it all the same thing isn't completely unjustified, but how many will scold MS for making it so hard for the average Joe to determine if a specific device will actually run Windows desktop applications, or only the ModernUI apps?