Opera Software announced a new partner for Opera Mini – Brazil’s TIM, which will offer the latest version of the popular mobile browser through its WAP Portal. We’re guessing — though it wasn’t mentioned in the press release — TIM will provide its customers with a custom version of the browser that comes with set-by-the-carrier homepage and bookmarks.
According to the same press release, TIM is offering the cheapest data plans in the market: pay-as-you-go customers can purchase the 24 Internet Package for only R$2.90, with 40MB included; while postpaid subscribers sign up for a 100MB data plan for only R$9.90 per month. In addition, there are options of unlimited – mobile-phone exclusive – data plans starting at R$49.90.
And for the record, this is TIM’s second initiative with Opera Mini: in 2009, two devices sold by the carrier came with the browser’s previous version preinstalled, and that proved as a winning strategy.
In terms of Opera Mini usage among Brazilians, it skyrocketed 218% year-on-year in February 2010, with page views reaching 43,539,610…