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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.