At the channel show, a company that develops mobile apps wanted to meet with me. They have a beta app with a large supplier. It does analytics and might make sharing collateral easier. It is just one more portal, one more app that gets announced.

The key question to ask is not How do I get paid for this? Or how do I find customers for the next app? The key questions is: How do I get people to use the app or portal?

XO launched a new partner portal. Many master agents have a portal. At least, one has released an app.

The average smartphone users spends more time using apps, but not the number of apps (up to 26 from 23).

"According to QZ, it's because most of the apps in the app store aren't useful to a large audience. The majority of smartphone users are sticking to the apps they already have." [source] (They don't have an app deficit or problem.)

So how do you get people to use your latest portal or app?

And before you say it is valuable, make certain that you mean valuable for them (the users), not valuable for you. Forcing them into a portal to replace an email isn't valuable nor will endear the user to your company/brand/portal.

It is an adoption problem.