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You mean the native app stores on smartphones? Because that's what competes with desktop software now that people user their phones for computing. But you can s

• pjc50 5y ago
  Store apps, or just web apps in general. > you can still get the app version of windows desktop software. Not really - you get app versions of portable software, which may be entirely rewritten from a similarly-named desktop app, but they're not the desktop app. It is as you say a separate version that requires separate maintenance. What you can't do is take a 1996-era Windows app and run it on a smartphone without a complete rewrite. Surprisingly, you could do this with Windows CE for handhelds, like the Compaq Pocket PC which ran ordinary MFC apps with minor tweaks and a recompile. Microsoft had one last go at desktop/phone unification with UWP, and that lost in the market.