The methods in an abstract factory pattern are factory methods and both of these design patterns are used to decouple the implementation classes using abstract types and also factories.

In essence, the Abstract Factory design pattern is used to create a factory of factories. In the Abstract Factory design pattern, the consumer invokes the Factory methods to create the objects.

Practical .NET Move Beyond Factory Methods with the Builder Pattern in C#/Visual Basic When your objects get sufficiently complicated to create, it's time to simplify your life by moving to the ...