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I would say that consumer purchasing behavior has veered away from desktop software to mobile applications (due to not having another choice of app distribution
by sylens 5y ago
I would say that consumer purchasing behavior has veered away from desktop software to mobile applications (due to not having another choice of app distribution) and subscription based services.
In the past, an app like Spotify may have been a desktop app that somebody developed and then sold in a retail box to manage a music library and generate playlists; now they give away the app for free to draw people into the subscription model.
It also does not help that Microsoft has been fumbling and rebooting its desktop app story repeatedly for about a decade now. The last bastion of good desktop apps has been on macOS, and now the cracks are starting to form in that dam as well with even developers like 1Password switching to multi-platform Electron and SaaS. (I actually like the new version of 1Password, but it's a canary for the state of desktop)
- Melatonic 5y agoMicrosoft has repeatedly bungled their app store on desktop - no idea how it is as bad as it is. You would think they might see that as a huge cash cow for them. Not that I am rooting for a more app store based Windows - a standard .MSI is pretty damn easy and convenient. But I think a lot of average end users might prefer something as seamless as MacOS app store or the Android play store - ESPECIALLY if it controlled auto-updates in a convenient and similar manner.
- sylens 5y agoThey are starting to get there with big official apps and you even install Python from Windows Store now - but they need to just pick a golden path for developers to make applications for everything from Grubhub to sports gambling - and then turn them loose