PocketGear, a Durham company whose technology runs online "app" stores for mobile phone providers, signed a deal to supply the software for Samsung Mobile's new Widget Store.
PocketGear has similar deals with AT&T and other partners. Landing Samsung, the No. 1 distributor of mobile phones in North America, is a coup, said founder and CEO Jud Bowman: "For them to select our product is huge for us."
Samsung's store will allow customers to download applications to access online content such as Facebook, Twitter, Fox Sports and more on its new line of TouchWiz phones.
PocketGear's technology is helping Samsung "rapidly accelerate our time to market," said Gavin Kim, a vice president for the subsidiary of Korea's Samsung Electronics.
PocketGear was formed last year when Bowman, 28, bought the business from Motricity, which he helped start as a teen. Motricity merged with a West Coast rival and moved most of its Durham operations to Seattle.
Bowman's new venture employs about 30 at its offices in the shadow of the Lucky Strike smokestack in Durham's American Tobacco Campus. That's up from 20 a year ago, and the company continues to hire.
Many of the additions are former Motricity employees, including Tim Horan, vice president of business development. "That's been a great base of talent for us to recruit from," Bowman said. "We certainly know them well."
The private company is profitable but doesn't disclose details on its financial health. "It's been a very good year," he said.
For starters, Apple has "changed the conversation" for mobile phones with the popularity of its App Store, Bowman said. Apple recently announced that more than 2 billion applications have been downloaded, a milestone for its year-old business.
Apple's iPhone competes with phones made by PocketGear partners, but Apple "has been one of the best advertisers about what can be done with mobile phones," he said.
