Google started its annual Playtime developer event in San Francisco and Berlin on Thursday, and the event stands to provide important information for Android app development over the year ahead. This information may prove useful not only to app development companies but also to other sorts of companies who might be interested in using either IOS or Android app development as part of their marketing strategy.

As a marketing tool, apps represent ever greater potential. Mashable’s coverage of Playtime noted that Google’s representatives described a two-fold increase in 2016 for both number of subscriptions and quantity of revenue channeled through the Google Play Store. Venture Beat was somewhat more specific, reporting that the store has over 1 billion active monthly users and delivers eight billion downloads per month. What’s more, there has apparently been a 30 percent increase in the number of Android app development entrepreneurs making one million dollars per month.

Entrepreneurs and Clients             

Those are some staggering figures, and they are obviously enticements for Android app development professionals. But generally speaking, wherever there’s an opportunity for one person to get rich by directly exploiting emerging trends, there’s also an opportunity for someone else to get rich by exploiting those trends’ marketing potential.

Do you know someone who is an expert in either IOS or Android app development? Are you in a position to collaborate with them on projects benefiting your business? If so, you should seriously consider adopting app development as part of your marketing strategy. There are numerous ways of doing this, including by leveraging apps for loyalty rewards programs or by simply allowing customers to explore products or services and interact with the company through a dedicated mobile app.

And even if you do not know anyone who is in a position to personally get rich off of Android app development, it is not difficult to reach out to an app development company and get a sense of what they might be able to do to enhance your traditional marketing strategies. In fact, in the wake of Google Playtime, that may be simpler than ever.

Lower Costs, Farther Reach

The above-mentioned Venture Beat article explains that among other changes, Google is introducing a crowdsourced “bug bounty” program as part of a strategy to improve security in all the apps it carries. It is also lowering costs for those who strive to show off their Android app development on the platform. And Mashable adds that the pricing changes are bring Google Play more in line with the Apple store.

All of this points to lower costs for contractors who specialize in Android app development, which should in turn mean that they will be able to pass on those savings to their clients. The changes also suggest that mobile app developers will soon see more incentive to focus equally on Android and IOS, thereby putting their clients in a better position to reach both halves of the mobile marketplace.

Of course, you might still strive to simplify matters by choosing either Android or IOS. That is fine, provided that you consult with your web marketing team to discover which will pay bigger dividends among your customer base. But one thing is for sure: if there is any place for IOS or Android app development in your modern web marketing efforts, you ignore it at your peril.