Opera is playing the public sympathy card and showing the world what browsing on EDGE is like on Opera Mini versus Apple’s native Safari browser. The demo is impressive, it’s exactly what I’ve already seen at Mobile World Congress, but more importantly it’s the political equivalent of Opera going “now what motherfucker?” to Apple. The world is watching you Cupertino.
Will Steven and the army of turtlenecks approve this application? It follows every single rule in the iPhone 3rd party development EULA. Since web pages are rendered on a remote server, and not locally, it should go through the App Store without a hitch … but something tells me there’s going to be a problem.
Apple will not approve it, iPhone developers will insult the platform, TechCrunch will write about it, and Android sales will increase ever so slightly. Opera Mini already works on BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and J2ME devices. Over 50 million people around the world are using the browser. It’s a pretty big deal in emerging economies were there is no 3G data, and for Americans on AT&T living in a dense urban environment.
Full press release announcing Opera’s violent chest bump with Apple after the jump.
Opera Mini submitted to Apple’s App Store
Oslo, Norway – March 23, 2010
Opera Mini for iPhone was officially submitted to the Apple iPhone App store today. A select few first saw it at Mobile World Congress 2010 in February. Now, the “fast like a rocket” browser is taking its first big step towards giving users a new way to browse on the iPhone.
Early reviews of Opera Mini for iPhone praised the sheer browsing speed, powering through Web pages up to six times faster than Safari. Due to server-side rendering, Opera Mini compresses data by up to 90 percent before sending it to the phone, resulting in rapid page loading and more Web per MB for the end user. Those familiar with iPhone roaming charges will relish Opera Mini’s ability to deliver more for less, giving users the Web they want quickly, without, the high costs.
“The Opera Mini for iPhone sneak peek during MWC told us that we have something special,” said Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder, Opera Software. “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 the world’s most popular mobile Web browser, famed for bringing the Web to nearly any mobile phone. Its speed, usability and navigation-friendly design have catapulted this browser onto more than 50 million mobile phones worldwide. Creating a version for iPhone is part of Opera’s mission to bring the Web to all platforms and all devices.