App developers are more productive than ever and a greater proportion are monetising their apps, according to research by mobile advertising provider Millennial Media.

The ‘State of the Apps Industry Snapshot’ found that 60 per cent of developers surveyed plan to publish five or more apps in 2014. This was a significant increase from 36 per cent who said the same for 2013.

It also found that 83 per cent of developers monetised their apps last year. Advertising was the most common approach, with 73 per cent of developers saying this was how they generated revenue, while paid downloads were used by 43 per cent.

More than half of all developers said they expect to see the proportion of revenue received from in-app advertising to increase throughout 2014.

Of the 17 per cent of respondents that didn’t monetise apps in 2013, almost half said they expected to in 2014.

Unsurprisingly, 80 per cent of developers worked with Android and 64 per cent with iOS. Of developers working with iOS, 78 per cent said they will also develop for Android in 2014, while 41 per cent of Android developers said they would build products for iOS.

The research also found that 74 per cent of developers build ‘universal apps’ that can run on smartphones and tablets.

Looking at European developers specifically, 45 per cent of their impressions came from the Americas, compared with 47 per cent from the home continent. Almost half (45 per cent) of European developers, many of whom are one-man operations, plan to grow the size of their business to two to nine employees this year,

Of the goals European developers have for the coming year, 52 per cent said they aim to develop more apps, 22 per cent want to maximise revenue and 11 per cent want to find new distribution channels or improve discovery.