Difference between repository and pluginrepository

My Android Maven project pom.xml contains the following entries. Now everything works fine. What is the difference between <repositories> entries and the <pluginRepositories> entries.

<repositories>
		<repository>
			<id>my-repo</id>
			<url>http://10.10.10.230:8081/nexus/content/groups/public</url>
			<releases>
				<enabled>true</enabled>
			</releases>
			<snapshots>
				<enabled>true</enabled>
				<updatePolicy>always</updatePolicy>
			</snapshots>
		</repository>
	</repositories>
	<pluginRepositories>
		<pluginRepository>
			<id>my-repo</id>
			<name>my-repo</name>
			<url>http://10.10.10.230:8081/nexus/content/groups/public/</url>
			<releases>
				<enabled>true</enabled>
			</releases>
			<snapshots>
				<enabled>true</enabled>
			</snapshots>
		</pluginRepository>
	</pluginRepositories>

As @otakun85 stated, There is no technical difference at all. It's for having different configurations->behavior for plugins in contrary to normal artifacts. See repository vs. pluginRepository for more details.

Also check maven-users mailing list archives, It provides quite good explanation to it.

Maven will resolve plugin dependencies using the configured pluginRepository. Other artifact dependencies (eg. a parent pom) are resolved using repository. Note: Things available on maven central will be resolved by default so you wouldn't normally need to include repository for those.

For example, if your pom.xml specifies a parent pom and a plugin dependency that both exist in the same repository you must still specify both repository AND pluginRepository. If you only configure one then maven will complain with "Unresolvable X" errors.