Opera has just announced that they’re going to launch both Opera Mini 6 and Opera Mobile 11 at CTIA next week. Opera Mini will be available in native form for Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, and of course they’ll be a J2ME version for all those feature phones out there that make up the bulk of Opera Mini’s users. Over on the Opera Mobile side, it’s going to be launched for Android, Symbian, Windows 7 and MeeGo of all things. And that’s all really. They don’t provide any teasers about what’s going to be new, only saying that people should check out Opera’s Co-founder Jon von Tetzchner [pictured above] at the “Internet Mobile Browsing” panel on the 22nd.
“In our lineup, all players are equally important–we leave no device behind. Our small and clever pieces of software will give you a 5-star experience, no matter what hardware you prefer”, said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. “Android users actually have two different Opera browsers to choose from: Opera Mini and Opera Mobile. Check them out, and decide which one is on the top of your chart.”
Opera Mini is the browser that takes the URL you want to visit and renders it on a remote server, compresses the final result by up to 90%, and then finally spits it back down to your device. Opera Mobile is the browser that you can think of as a replacement to the native browser on your device. Both include features like desktop syncing so you have the same bookmarks, regardless of what device you’re using. Now that we think about it, the only thing Opera Mini doesn’t do is play video. The user interface is decent, but other than that … we’re curious what new features warrant a new version number. Traditionally Opera has done releases like 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, etc.
Stay tuned for our coverage, live from the show floor!