i beg to differ on this point.

I believe the appstore paradigm will become more pervasive in the future, extending its reach to desktop and maybe even the corporate world.

There may be tweaks to make them more palatable to the purists out there; like allowing multiple appstores/repositories, a more lenient control/drm mechanisms, etc... but the basic concept will be the same. Centralized storage(s) that maintains and distribute binaries+licenses to all the clients out there.

The benefits of cost, convenience and control are just too great to avoid now.

Moreover, until we evolve to become creatures with wheels and a desk on our laps (adult swim's hot throttle game comes to mind), then a separate UI for the different form factors will always be necessary.

Not sure of your point. That it's not supported anymore, and that the required firmware is not available to you anymore?

I believe the appstore paradigm will continue to exist far into the future. A single program may have multiple UI/modes depending on the target platform it's installed on.

We're already seeing iOS and Android programs that show different modes/UI depending on the formfactor of the device it's installed on (pocketables (smartphones) and tablet). So I'm sure this will extend to include notebook and workstation too in the future.

People will prefer to acquire/buy a license for an app from an appstore, which will handle all the storage and updates for them. They don't need to burn those off to cds, dvds or external storage and maintain multiple copies and track updates manually and independently from one another.