Released ahead of its time, with too much overlapping between the .41AE and 10mm Auto/.40 S&W in terms of performance. On the high end, it's no better than 10mm Auto, on the low end it's no more powerful than .40 S&W, so it really doesn't bring anything new to the table.
Under different circumstances, it could have taken the place of .40 S&W, since it's essentially the same concept which made .40 S&W popular in the first place, (i.e. more power than 9mm in the same sized frame) and it predated .40 S&W by a few years too, but alas, it was ahead of its time, and wasn't backed by a company with as much clout as Smith & Wesson, so it failed where a very similar cartridge succeeded a few years later, merely by being in the right place, proposed at the right time, by the right company.
That being said, it makes no difference in the end, because even if it had taken the place of .40 S&W, then it would be in the exact same spot right now; abandoned by the FBI in favor of 9mm as of 2016, largely abandoned by Law Enforcement, and somewhat abandoned by civilians, constantly the subject of debate regarding obsolescence, and the mere mention of it often met with emotional knee-jerk responses from 9mm Fanboys still haunted by painful memories of a bygone era when their pet cartridge was considered inferior to it.
Best case scenario, it might have also taken the place of the 10mm Auto and thus received a moderate resurgence in popularity after its departure from Law Enforcement as a minimalist Wilderness Defense firearm with full power loads. But even that is unlikely since it was never a popular alternative to 10mm to begin with, and never had nearly as many prominent firearms chambered in it.
Oh, and my screen name would currently be something like; "Forte Won Achtung Axe-Press" or another such wordplay on the name of the cartridge which I unexpectedly grew to love thanks to an abundance of police trade-in .41AE pistols which flooded the market at absurdly low prices for a few years.
