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The reason is simple.

The reason is really quite simple. Smartphones and tablets and PCs, all work basically the same, except for the sizes. They are all computers, and some are more powerful than others, but, in the final analysis, they can be made to work the same, and there is absolutely no reason to make them work differently from the user interface. The things they can do might be different, but the interface can still look the same. The screen is not much more than a launch pad for the apps, and it's also the means to display static information.

A motorcycle and a car are not the same, although their basic purpose is the same. A car can do things that a motorcycle can't, and vice-versa. Smartphones of today can do things that PCs of a few years ago were able to do, and more.

If the user interface can look the same, then the user is the winner in all aspects of computing. The biggest reason to make the different form-factors work and look the same, is because they serve the same purposes, and can do the same kind of applications. A smartphone is not a phone. It is a computer, with phone capabilities included. A tablet is a PC, but with less capabilities. But, when they all can do basically the same kind of tasks, there is no reason to differentiate them from the "start" screen. The tablet-PC from Microsoft (the Surface tablets), are quite capable, and they are actually PCs, and the WP8 smartphones can also perform a lot of the same tasks that a lot of PCs and tablets can. WP8 smartphones were designed with more PC-like capabilities. and, though the screens are smaller, they can still handle a screen that looks like that of a regular PC.

Now, what is the difference between the "launch" screen of an iPad vs that of an iPhone. They both use icons for launching tasks. Same with Android. Why would the iPhones and iPads need to have different "start" screens? Like I said in an earlier post, even the Macs will be transitioned to look like the iOS devices in the future. No need to make them look different if they are actually performing the same basic tasks.