WASHINGTON — Christian Wiklund didn’t set out to run a dating company.

He intended to create a service that would simply allow people to share cell phone pictures and videos marked with their exact locations.

The technology worked, but then something surprising happened: Most customers ended up using it to flirt and share photos with other users reported to be nearby.

So last year, Wiklund’s company, Skout, changed its business model and joined a growing wave of firms trying to turn smart phones into dating devices.

For years, technology analysts have predicted the rise of mobile dating, which would allow customers to meet new people using cell phones just as they had through personal computers and online dating sites. But so far, adoption has been slow.

The iPhone, Wiklund and his rivals predict, is about to change that.

“They’ve provided a very explosive technology with a strong distribution channel. … On the iPhone alone, we see (2,000)-3,000 new users every day,” Wiklund says.

It’s meant to be a faster, less-formal process than online dating. You might not know everything about a potential date, but you will know you’re both free that evening and two blocks away from your favorite neighborhood watering hole.