Going through the spec sheet for the HTC Vivid you'll see the usual array of hardware and features. Sure, the 4.5-inch S-LCD screen's 540 x 960 resolution crams more pixels into the display than the Samsung Skyrocket's 480 x 800 Super AMOLED Plus display. But what really separates HTC devices from the pack is Sense. Sense 3.0 is HTC's magic.

Taiwanese cell phone maker HTC, which has been adding employees at a brisk pace since opening an office in Durham earlier this year, will soon be taking more office space in American Tobacco Campus.

The company is expanding by 31,266 square feet in ATC's Crowe and Foweler buildings.

With the expansion, HTC's total square footage will reach 47,000.

Heath Chapman and Don Shupe of CB Richard Ellis' Raleigh office represented HTC in the deal. The two also represented Health IT Services Group, which recently signed a lease for 43,500 square feet of space in ATC.

HTC now employes about 60 people in Durham and has job openings for a dozen more on its website.

The office focuses on long-term research projects.

HTC initially took 15,000 square feet of space in ATC with an option to occupy more as it grew.

Research in Motion will cut 2,000 jobs to offset slowing sales of its once-iconic BlackBerry smartphones.

The Canadian company is seeing weaker demand for BlackBerry phones, amid increasing competition from Apple's iPhone and other rivals. It recently introduced a new Playbook tablet computer and is preparing to start selling a new version of its Bold phone.

"They need to find a way to make consumers get excited about RIM products," Evercore Partners analyst Alkesh Shah told Bloomberg News. "At this point they haven't gotten there."

RIM has quickly expanded a research facility in Cary during the past year. In April, the company disclosed that it employs about 200 people locally.

It isn't clear how many local jobs will be affected in the cuts. 

Taiwanese cell phone maker HTC's recently opened Durham office now employs about 60 people and is looking to add a dozen more.

HTC announced late last year plans to open a research and development office in Durham. The company chose Durham over Seattle and Atlanta.

HTC said at the time that the office would initially employ 45 people, with that number expected to increase to 99 within five years.

The average annual wage for jobs was expected to be $125,000.

HTC received $150,000 in incentives from the city of Durham.

The company has a dozen job openings in North Carolina listed on its website for a range of positions, including financial analysts, market analysts and design engineers.
 

Taiwanese cell phone maker HTC said today that it plans to lease space in downtown Durham's American Tobacco Campus.

HTC is leasing about 15,000 square feet, plus an additional 12,000 square feet for future expansion.

The company said the facility, a new research and development office, will employ 45 people initially.

“HTC has been successful bringing its unique brand of people-centric innovation to consumers, and with the establishment of this new R&D office, we are taking an important step to extend our leadership position in the wireless industry,” said Ron Louks, chief strategy officer for HTC, in a release.

“Durham is a perfect place to open our new R&D office because we are able to tap into this deep pool of technical talent that complements HTC’s leading-edge R&D efforts going on around the world.”

The announcement is a major win for both downtown Durham and American Tobacco.

In October, the Durham City Council approved $150,000 in incentives for HTC. A proposal before the council said HTC expected to create 99 jobs over five years.

The average annual wage for jobs would be $125,000.
 

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.

The American Tobacco complex may get a techie tenant if Durham's plan goes through.

A smart-phone manufacturer won a $150,000 incentive grant from the City Council Monday night, with the expectation that the company create 75 jobs over the next three years.

With the incentive, matching one from the state Commerce Department, Durham hopes to bring HTC America Innovation Inc.’s new research and development center to the American Tobacco complex.

“More IT-related jobs would certainly be attractive to downtown Durham,” said said Durham economic development Director Kevin Dick.

Besides new jobs, paying an average of $125,000 per year plus benefits, the center would mean $2 million in private investment, Dick said.

HTC America is the U.S. subsidiary of the Taiwan firm HTC – which stands for “High-Tech Computers,” said chief strategy officer Ron Louks in reply to Councilman Howard Clement’s question.

“That was too obvious,” said Clement.

The company also has Atlanta and Bellingham, Wash., its headquarters city, under consideration for its new location.

The council approved the incentive unanimously and without discussion. The agreement would require HTC to create 45 jobs by the end of 2010, and 15 jobs each by the ends of 2012 and 2013. The new facility, when fully operational, is expected to employ a total staff of 99.

Money for the city incentive would be taken from the dedicated Downtown Fund; the state incentive from the One North Carolina Fund.
 

"We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or
we can do something about it," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement.
"We've decided to do something about it."