PocketGear announced it has acquired Handango, creating what is believed to be the world's largest cross platform, open app store. The combination gives the company a catalog of more than 140,000 paid and free titles.
Terms of the acquisition were not released. However, PocketGear CEO Jud Bowman says that combined to date, the two independent app stores have generated more than $400 million in mobile application revenues from customers in more than 175 countries using more than 2,000 unique mobile devices.
But while the name PocketGear is not be as well-known among consumers as the Apple App Store, it does have a faithful following of developers, which is key for its model. With the acquisition, PocketGear's market expands to connect more than 32,000 developers in its developer program.
PocketGear has more than 40 PocketGear-powered storefront and distribution partners, including four of the top five U.S. mobile operators. The company has worked with AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Research In Motion, Microsoft, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson.
What Apple and Google are doing in the apps space is "pretty incredible," Bowman says, but he views Apple's as a closed app store model; it really caters to iPod touches and the iPhone. PocketGear is "all around open," he says. The company does not support iPhone, but it does support Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, Palm, Microsoft Windows, Java and Linux.
As for the GSMA's OneAPI initiative launched last week to create a common set of APIs for the development community: "It's an acknowledgement of how important this space is... and also just how hard this is," Bowman says.
PocketGear spun out of Motricity in 2008, offering a central place for developers to more rapidly get their apps to market. Bowman says the company has perfected its process enough to help a handset maker or carrier launch their own customized app store within weeks.
Unlike other models where developers keep 70 percent of the revenue share, PocketGear structures it such that developers can keep as much as 90 percent.
Handango has raised more than $75 million in venture capital to date. Handango CEO Alex Bloom will become COO of PocketGear, and Bowman remains president and CEO.
Bowman says the Handango office in Irving, Texas, will remain. PocketGear's main U.S. office is in Durham, N.C., but it also has an office in Munich, Germany.