Opera Software officially submitted its Opera Mini for iPhone browser to the
Apple App Store March 23.
The Norway-based company introduced the browser at the Mobile World Congress
2010 show, though offered minimal details about an arrival date. As
late as March 19, Opera co-founder Jon von Tetzchner told eWEEK that the iPhone
app would arrive “pretty soon.”
“The Opera Mini for iPhone sneak peek during MWC told us that we have something
special,” von Tetzchner said in a March 23 announcement. “Opera has put every
effort into creating a customized, stylized, feature-rich and highly responsive
browser that masterfully combines iPhone capabilities with Opera’s renowned Web
experience, and the result is a high-performing browser for the iPhone.”
Opera Mini is known for its ability to compress data before sending it to a
device, which offers the user a faster browsing experience and loads fewer
megabytes on the end-user side—which can offer a savings when roaming charges
apply. According to Opera, the Mini for iPhone browser loads Web pages six
times faster than Safari.
Additionally, it allows users to restart their smartphone’s browser to a fully
intact version of the last Web page they accessed—a feature said to somewhat
compensate for the iPhone’s inability to offer Android-style multitasking.
The cross-platform nature of the browser has also encouraged its widespread
adoption, and as
of February, the browser is on more than 50 million mobile phones worldwide.
“Our original goal with Opera Mini was to make the Web available to everyone,
regardless of their network or mobile phone,” Opera CEO
Lars Boilesen said in a Feb. 12 statement.
At MWC, Opera additionally showed off an Opera Mobile 10 Beta browser running
on a Google Android handset and Opera Mobile 10 Beta 3 running on Symbian S60
and Windows Mobile handsets.
On March 3, the company introduced Opera
Mini 5 and Opera Mobile 10 browsers—the former for Java, BlackBerry,
Android and Windows Mobile smartphones, and the latter for Windows Mobile and
Symbian S60-based phones.
“Creating a version for iPhone is part of Opera’s mission to bring the Web to
all platforms and all devices,” Opera said in the Opera iPhone App’s
announcement.
At the My Opera Community
site, community members can guess the date on which Apple will approve the
Opera Mini for iPhone app into the App Store. The lucky winner will receive,
you guessed it, a new iPhone.
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