A Durham company competing in the red-hot market for cell-phone applications is charting a new path with a new name.

PocketGear will announce this morning that it's changed its name to Appia, as part of a broader strategy shift.

The company, which raised $15 million in venture financing last summer, will focus mostly on building so-called "apps stores" for mobile-phone partners such as AT&T, T-Mobile, Samsung and Verizon. It will spend less time and resources on selling games and other apps directly to consumers via its own websites.

As part of that shift, which has been in the works for about six months, company officials decided they needed a new brand identity, said spokesman Dov Cohn.

The name comes from "Via Appia," Latin for the Appian Way, a road that connected cities in the ancient Roman Empire. The idea is that the company connects apps developers worldwide to apps stores that distribute them to customers.

Jud Bowman, founder and CEO of PocketGear, isn't worried about Apple Inc. dominating the booming market for cell-phone applications.

A story in the Wall Street Journal this week noted that Apple's market power and the entry of other giants such as Google into the apps store business is increasing pressure on small players such as PocketGear and GetJar.

There are about 125 million iPhones and other Apple devices out there, and those users will download more than $1 billion worth of apps from Apple's store this year. But there are billions of other mobile devices worldwide, Bowman points out.

"Apple has shown us the incredible potential," he said in a phone interview today. "There's a huge potential for other companies going after this market."

His Durham company develops and runs stores that sell games and other apps for more than 40 phone companies or handset makers, and is racing to add more. So far this year, the number of customers to those stores has increased about 370 percent from a year ago, Bowman said.

Digitalsmiths, a 35-employee startup whose video search system is used by film studios and websites, is moving from Morrisville to American Tobacco Campus in downtown Durham.

The company has signed a long-term lease for about 7,000 square feet in ATC, said Matthew Berry, one of the company's co-founders and its chief technology officer.

The company will move into its new space over the Thanksgiving break.

Berry said Digitalsmiths considered locating in American Tobacco three years ago, when the company moved to the Triangle from South Carolina, but couldn't make it work.

Digitalsmiths is one of many companies that has used the economic downturn as an opportunity to move into nicer, more higher-profile office space.

"There's certainly something to be said about the ability to recruit high-level talent and just being where they want to work and being around like-minded people," Berry said of American Tobacco.

Armed with $15 million in venture financing, PocketGear CEO Jud Bowman has wasted little time in expanding his management team.

And he recruited from his old management team to do it. Bowman, 29, announced Tuesday that he's hired three executives that he previously worked with at Motricity: Ken Hayes, Dov Cohn and Jim Harvey.

Bowman started PocketGear's predecessor in 1999 while still a teen, and later sold it to the company that became Motricity. In 2008, he bought it back to build a Durham-based business running "apps" stores for smartphone makers and wireless carriers worldwide.

PocketGear's Jud Bowman is still waiting to actually meet Google CEO Eric Schmidt, despite recently getting financial support from the iconic, but apparently elusive, tech executive.

PocketGear announced Monday that it raised $15 million in venture financing from a group of investors that included Tomorrow Ventures, Schmidt's Silicon Valley-based investment firm. That money will help PocketGear expand and continue hiring. It also reaffirms that Bowman has built a major player in the fast-growing business of supplying content for mobile devices -- the games and other programs known as apps.

Two weeks ago, Tomorrow Ventures held its first annual retreat in Vail, Colo., for entrepreneurs from the companies that Schmidt has invested in and Bowman had hoped to meet him there. But Schmidt had to cancel at the last minute because of a family conflict, Bowman said. 

"I definitely hope to meet with him soon," said Bowman, 29, who heard Schmidt speak at a Goldman Sachs Internet conference in 2006 but didn't get a chance to introduce himself.

Read our full report on PocketGear's venture funding and strategy here.

Jud Bowman has attracted some notable investors to expand his Durham business of running "apps" stores for smartphone makers and wireless carriers worldwide.

PocketGear, which Bowman founded a decade ago while still a teenager, announced this morning that it raised $15 million in venture capital.

The latest investors include Tomorrow Ventures, the investment firm of Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Also kicking in money: Trident Capital and BlackBerry Partners Fund, a fund affiliated with Research in Motion, the Canadian company behind the popular BlackBerry devices.

The financial support strengthens PocketGear's ties with two of the biggest smartphone developers. It also reaffirms that Bowman is developing a major player in the mobile-content industry.

A Durham company that helps mobile-phone providers sell "apps" to consumers worldwide has purchased one of its top rivals.

PocketGear will announce this morning that it has bought Handango to expand its market for the increasingly popular programs run on smartphones.

PocketGear plans to keep its headquarters in Durham, but also will retain Handango's offices in Dallas. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Jud Bowman will remain CEO of the combined company. Bowman, 28, founded the business as a teen and bought it back in 2008 from Motricity when that company moved its headquarters to the West Coast from Durham.

PocketGear, a Durham company whose technology runs online "app" stores for mobile phone providers, has signed a new deal with Samsung Mobile.

Samsung will soon launch its Widget Store to run on a new line of TouchWiz phones. The store will allow customers to download applications to access online content such as Facebook, Twitter, Fox Sports and more.

PocketGear has similar deals with AT&T and other partners. Landing Samsung, the No. 1 distributor of mobile phones in North America, is a major coup, said founder and CEO Jud Bowman.

PocketGear was formed last year when Bowman, 28, bought the business from Motricity, a tech company he helped start as a teenager.

Bowman's new venture now 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 is continuing to hire.