Installation threshold is my guess. To install an app on mobile you go to a specific place, find it, peruse screenshots and reviews if you want to, hit one sta

Installation threshold is my guess. To install an app on mobile you go to a specific place, find it, peruse screenshots and reviews if you want to, hit one standardized button, and it's installed in seconds. On desktop, you Google it. You hope the first link is the right one and not malware. You poke through a few pages until you find some sort of download button. Your OS asks you where you want to save it. You save it and then go find the file and open it. Then some kind of installer usually runs that may ask you further questions. It's probably going to dump some clutter in various places and will hopefully give you an icon that you can use to run it without searching for the install location. For companies trying to ratchet-up conversions, this friction matters a whole lot These days there's also the developer experience, but I think developer experience for desktop apps tanked because marketshare tanked, not the other way around