By now we’ve all come to terms with the iPhone AppStore opening its doors to a non-webkit browser like the Opera Mini web browser for iPhone. In the first couple weeks following the Opera Mini browser’s mid-April launch on the AppStore, we saw the default Safari Mobile web browser take a deep back seat to Opera’s lightweight and super-fast browser. The rush of users looking for a Safari alternative was enough to rocket the browser to the top of all app download charts in iTunes. So, it’s really no surprise that we’re today told that more than 2.6 million iPhone users downloaded and used the Norwegian browser in the second half of April alone.
Surprised, or no, there’s no denying that 2.6 million users is no small number. The rush of new users was enough to change the top 10 countries and handsets pulling websites down through Opera’s servers. The United States got a boost from its #8 ranking on the top 10 countries list to a more respectable #6 spot. The iPhone was also the #3 handset used by Opera Mini users in April.
Interestingly, iPhone users pushed Twitter.com into Opera’s Top 10 sites in the US. Google, Facebook and the NYTimes.com webpages comprise the first, second and third-most visited sites, respectively, in Opera’s ecosystem. We’re also told that pageviews per user hit the 210 mark.
Now, what’s really going to be interesting is how Opera Mini fares in the iTunes AppStore as time goes on. The faster Opera Mini browser will attract those with unreliable 3G data reception and are limited to EDGE data speeds, but does it have to staying power to go head-to-head with Apple’s Mobile Safari browser in the long term? We’ll have to wait and see.
This video shows why Opera Mini rocks on iPhone: