Mac App Store fails mostly because the restrictions on apps in it are too severe. Many applications can not exist on it due to sandboxing.

This and the fact that the application itself is quite terrible.

Edit: Also, for desktop apps the pricing model without paid upgrades is not viable. Compared to mobile, there are too few customers.

Did the MacOS App Store fail? I don't think so. Sure, it's not as popular as the iOS store but this is probably because most Mac apps are an order of magnitude more expensive than their iOS counterparts. Personally I don't mind paying a few bucks for an iOS app, but I think twice before hitting that buy button on a 50$ app.

It's certainly failed to reach its potential. A lot of very high quality, high profile apps have quit the App Store and actually found their sales and revenue increase, aside from not having to comply with onerous sandboxing restrictions any more.

The macOS app store didn't gain much traction but you're underestimating just how much of a cease pool the Windows app store is. Microsoft must have the resources to moderate that better. But based on my last test search of "Firefox" coming up with dozens of fake Firefox apps or "apps" that are "Firefox Guides" basically PDFs wrapped as an "app" etc... My only guess is Microsoft knows there's a truly abysmal number of legit apps so they just choose not to moderate it

The Mac App Store has some junk but I actually find it quite useful and do buy stuff on there because I know I'll be able to install it if/when I switch computers in the future. Same thing with Steam. I also expense most of my Mac App Store purchases, so that probably makes a difference.

I don't think they realize how much effort it takes to curate. Even Google's half-assed, slap-dash approach is better than nothing.

Apple's store is not a complete failure, there's some very good apps in there, but it's cluttered and disorganized.

The biggest hurdle in the macOS App Store is the stiff sandboxing rules that make the more exotic and often useful utilities incompatible.

Do you think Adobe doesn't put the real Photoshop in Apple's Mac app store because of sandboxing?

Nope. The really big hurdle is the 30% cut that Apple wants to take.

It's not in Adobe's best interest to hand over that portion when they have proven demand for their product and a distribution system (Adobe Cloud) of their own.

For smaller devs the store should provide a better marketing and sales platform, and so be worth the 30% cut. Steam, as an example, seems to work out alright for most companies but not everyone.

It certainly contributes. Rewriting an app as complex as photoshop for the App Store would be a daunting task.

Do you think Apple's store has the same lack of quality control?