Appia lands Latin America wireless deal

Durham technology company Appia is announcing today that it has launched app stores in 18 Latin American countries for America Movil, one of the world's largest wireless providers.

America Movil has 242 million wireless subscribers in Latin America.

"To put that in perspective, that's three times larger than Verizon, three times larger than AT&T," said Appia CEO Jud Bowman.

With today's launch, Appia-powered app stores for the likes of AT&T, Verizon, Samsung and Vodaphone can be accessed by more than 400 million wireless customers. The America Movil app stores include applications in Spanish, English and Portuguese.

Smartphone users go to the app sites to download games and a host of applications. Although some apps are free, Appia gets a cut of every one sold.

It was just 12 months ago that privately held PocketGear changed its name to Appia and adopted a new strategy of building apps stores for corporate partners. The company has more than 50 employees.

"It's starting to take off," said Bowman, who declined to disclose revenue. "I'm pretty bullish right now on what we're doing."

America Movil is controlled by Carlos Slim Helu, who last year was ranked as the world's richest person by Forbes magazine.

"In the mobile world, you couldn't have a more high-profile win," said Triangle venture capitalist Steve Nelson of the Wakefield Group, an investor in Appia.

Appia has raised about $28 million in venture capital. Last year the Wall Street Journal ranked the company No. 14 on its annual list of the top 50 venture-funded companies with the greatest potential for success.