Last week rumors began to circulate that Facebook was interested in acquiring Opera Software, the makers of the Opera Web browser. The social networking giant recently removed Google’s Chrome Web browser, which is the most popular in the world, from its recommendation list and replaced it with Opera, further fueling the speculation of a potential buyout. While both Chrome and Apple’s Safari Web browsers are supported by Facebook, the Menlo Park-based company is recommending users to use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox and Opera for a better experience. 

[Via FavBrowser]

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The built-in Android web browser has become the most popular mobile web browser, according to StatCounter. Android’s browser overcame Research in Motion’s BlackBerry browser in March 2011 to capture fourth place. Since then, the browser has grown at a rapid rate, passing Nokia, Apple and Opera’s mobile web browsers. In February 2012, Android had a 22.67% market share, beating out Opera’s 21.7% share for the first time ever. Apple’s iPhone browser continues to make gains with a share of 21.06%, while Nokia and BlackBerry continue to fall with an 11.24% and 6.53% market share. StatCounter does, however, account for the iPhone and iPod touch browsers separately, and combined they propel Apple’s iOS browser to first place, with a market share of 25.36%. The iPad is not included.

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After ousting Opera’s popular Opera Mini Web browser from its app store earlier this month, GetJar announced the browser’s return on Thursday. The app was originally tossed out of GetJar’s app store in early March when Opera announced plans to offer an app store of its own. GetJar wasn’t very happy with Opera’s entrance into the space so it banned the app from its catalog, theoretically preventing its users from accessing Opera’s competitive offering. “I’m glad that Opera Mini is back in the GetJar store,” said Mahi de Silva, EVP of Consumer Mobile at Opera Software, in a statement. “We believe Opera should be everywhere and we love the fact that our fans will now be able to download Opera Mini again from GetJar.” GetJar offered no explanation as to why it allowed this new version of Oper’a mobile browser, Opera Mini 6, back into its app store.

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The Opera Mini browser no longer has a home in GetJar’s app store. Following Opera’s announcement on Tuesday that it will now offer an app store accessible through its mobile browser software on Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Java-enabled handsets, GetJar has pulled Opera’s Opera Mini mobile Web browser from its catalog. In a strikingly candid note to users, GetJar’s chief marketing officer Patrick Mork cites a fear of competition as the cause for the removal. “The simple problem is that Opera mini decided to include a competing app store in its browser,” Mork wrote in a note to GetJar users. “Although we don’t have any issue with this in principle, in practice it means that consumers might start using this app store instead of visiting GetJar to get their favourite apps. This robs GetJar of traffic and therefore of the advertising necessary to keep our service free for the more than 25 million consumers that use GetJar. It also jeopardizes an ecosystem that has generated over 1.6 billion downloads for tens of thousands of developers who depend on us to make money from their apps.” Opera Mini was one the most popular apps in GetJar’s catalog. Hit the break for the full letter.

Dear GetJar Users,

This week we had to take a very drastic and unusual step at GetJar: to remove one of our long-time favourite apps. This is something that we don’t take lightly and is nearly unprecedented in the 5+ years we’ve been distributing apps to consumers in more than 190 countries. The app in question, Opera Mini browser, had racked up more the 30 million downloads on GetJar over the last several years and was one of the most popular apps in the browser category. It was also the winner of the prestigious Gettie Award last year for best mobile app in the Windows Mobile category.

So why did we do this?

Apps on Getjar are free to download. This has always allowed us to provide quick, unrestricted and worldwide access to apps for all our users. It’s a central part of our business and philosophy and one that we find fundamental to allowing consumers to try great content no matter where they live and how they want to consume apps. However, to keep our service running GetJar needs to make money ;)

Therefore, we allow app developers to promote their applications on GetJar using advertising. Developers can obtain extra visibility to promote their apps and pay for this on a per-download-basis. This keeps your content free, keeps us running and allows developers to get extra visibility.

The simple problem is that Opera mini decided to include a competing app store in its browser. Although we don’t have any issue with this in principle, in practice it means that consumers might start using this app store instead of visiting GetJar to get their favourite apps. This robs GetJar of traffic and therefore of the advertising necessary to keep our service free for the more than 25 million consumers that use GetJar. It also jeopardizes an ecosystem that has generated over 1.6 billion downloads for tens of thousands of developers who depend on us to make money from their apps.

Don’t get me wrong: we’re happy to go head-to-head with any other app store and are certain that once you’ve tried the Opera App store you’ll find the depth of content, discovery and download from GetJar more compelling than ever. But it’s an another thing entirely to help competitors grow their business at our expense or that of our community.

We spent many months negotiating with Opera to avoid this scenario and are disappointed that GetJar consumers will no longer have access to Opera Mini. Fortunately, there are a number of excellent options on GetJar for our users including Bitstream Bolt, UC Web browser and Squace. All are excellent products.

In the meantime, we hope to resolve this solution with Opera in the future and want to thank you all for being such dedicated GetJar fans ;)

Thanks,

Patrick Mork, CMO GetJar

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Browser maker Opera has announced the a new application store for Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, and Java based handsets that offers both free and paid applications for your mobile device. “The Opera Mobile Store is available to Opera users and users of other mobile browsers, on all popular mobile phone platforms in more than 200 countries,” reads the press release. “The Opera Mobile Store uses Appia’s storefront commerce technology and leverages a wide catalog of applications.” The company boasts that its store attracted more than 15 million users from 200 countries, cultivating over 700,000 downloads per day, during its pilot stage this February. Opera has partnered with app store curator Appia to help launch the Opera Mobile Store globally. “The Opera Mobile Store presents a remarkable opportunity for mobile application developers to distribute localized content through a single, far-reaching marketplace,” said Appia’s CEO, Jud Bowman. “Appia is thrilled to partner with Opera to deliver an incredible storefront of applications to Opera users and beyond.” The Norwegian company has put a “featured link” leading to the new store in the Speed Dial section of the Opera browser. Hit the jump for the full press release.

Opera launches the Opera Mobile Store, available in over 200 Countries

Oslo, Norway – March 7, 2011 – Opera Software, the leading provider of mobile browsers around the world, today announced that the Opera Mobile Store is now open and available at http://mobilestore.opera.com/. This storefront is a featured Speed Dial link in the Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers, which makes the storefront immediately accessible by more than100 million people who use an Opera browser on their mobile phones. The Opera Mobile Store has been built and delivered through a strategic partnership with Appia, the leading provider of open application marketplace technology. The Opera Mobile Store offers both free and paid applications for virtually any mobile platform and device.

The Opera Mobile Store is available to Opera users and users of other mobile browsers, on all popular mobile phone platforms in more than 200 countries. The Opera Mobile Store uses Appia’s storefront commerce technology and leverages a wide catalog of applications for phones with Java, Symbian, BlackBerry and Android operating systems. The storefront experience is customized to each user’s phone, providing a tailored catalog based on the phone’s operating system, local language and currency.

“The launch of the Opera Mobile Store supports Opera’s core belief in an open, cross-platform mobile Internet experience by providing Opera users with an integrated storefront of mobile applications,” said Mahi de Silva, EVP, Consumer Mobile, Opera Software. “Our partnership with Appia delivers to all Opera Mobile and Opera Mini users easy access to a wide variety of great content, on any device, all over the world.”

To support the Opera Mobile Store, Opera Software has also launched the Opera Publisher Portal (http://publishers.mobilestore.opera.com), providing developers with an easy way to get their applications onto the Opera Mobile Store and in front of millions of Opera users every month. In its pre-launch state, the Opera Mobile Store attracted more than 15 million users in February, from 200 countries, achieving more than 700,000 downloads per day. These metrics establish the Opera Mobile Store as a top 10 mobile application store around the world.

“The Opera Mobile Store presents a remarkable opportunity for mobile application developers to distribute localized content through a single, far-reaching marketplace,” said Jud Bowman, CEO of Appia. “Appia is thrilled to partner with Opera to deliver an incredible storefront of applications to Opera users and beyond.”

Days ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show, browser maker Opera has posted a quick teaser video showcasing its tablet-optimized, Android browser. The quick, 26 second clip emphasizes the fluidity of the browser when scrolling an zooming — a little anticlimactic, we know. If you’re interested in getting a very brief peek at what the browser is going to look like, hit the jump… the video is waiting for you.

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Ah yes, pulled from the deep, cold fjords of Norway comes a fresh release of Opera for Android. The latest code out of Oslo – Opera 5.1 for Android — brings with it a slew of improvements, including: the ability to be set as the default browser, better kinetic scrolling, improved pinch-to-zoom functionality, and better overall rendering speed. The app is sitting in the Android Market as we speak. Why don’t you go check out what your friends from Norway have come up with for you! Hit the bounce for the full press release.

Opera Mini 5.1 for Android released
Oslo, Norway — July 14, 2010

Opera spreads the love to Android mobile phone users. Opera Mini 5.1 is now available for phones built on the Android platform, offering better browsing performance and improved user experience.

With over 61 million users worldwide, Opera Mini is the world’s most popular browser for mobile phones, allowing much faster browsing speeds, while keeping the costs to a minimum. Browse at lightning speed today by downloading the free Opera Mini browser from the Android Market or at m.opera.com.

Opera Mini is a favorite not just on feature phones, but also on smartphones, scoring an impressive 1 million downloads on the iPhone during the first 24 hours of availability. Opera Mini is highly optimized for almost any handset, delivering the best Internet experience on more than 3000 mobile phone models.

Opera Mini raises the game on Android phones. Since its Opera Mini 5 beta release, Opera Mini can now be set as the default browser for more convenient Internet access. Opera Mini 5.1 also offers improved page layout on high-end Android handsets with large screens.

What we say

“Opera Mini 5.1 for the Android platform is the next step in bringing the world’s most popular mobile web browser to all major platforms, offering improved performance and great web experience to almost any handset,” says Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. “Opera Mini is used by over 61 million people on more than 3000 handset models and with today’s release Opera continues its mission to provide the best web experience on any device and on any platform.”

About Opera Mini

Opera Mini brings the Web to almost any handset by compressing data by up to 90 percent before sending content to the phone. This results in significantly improved page loading speed and reduced data costs for the user. For example, with webpages such as BBC.com, a normal mobile web browser will display a BBC News page roughly 1 time, as compared to 9 times with Opera Mini for the same cost.

In addition to providing speed and cost savings, Opera Mini 5.1 comes with useful features, such as tabbed browsing, password manager, bookmarks and Speed Dial, built into the browser to deliver easy web access while on-the-go. With Opera Mini optimized for Android phones, more people are able to get a PC-like browsing experience on their handsets.

Download

Download Opera Mini directly to your Android phone for free from the Android Market, or at m.opera.com. For more information, visit http://www.opera.com/mobile/.

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Having long reigned as the king of the browser world, Internet Explorer continued its downward slide in April as its market share fell to a ten-year low. Market share for the Windows-based browser dropped 0.7 percent in April. to 59.95%. Despite its unhealthy losses, Internet Explorer still remains the dominant browser with double the market share of its closes competitor, Firerfox, which made a modest gain of 0.07% to finish the month at 24.59%. While IE stumbled, Chrome was on the upswing, grabbing 0.6 more percentage points to capture an overall market share of 6.73%. Apple’s Safari made a 0.07% gain at the expense of Opera which lost 0.07%. Next month’s figures should prove to be interesting as they may reveal whether the precipitous drop is the result of the EU’s mandatory browser ballot, now in full swing, or merely a bad month for Microsoft.

[via Ars Technica]

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Uh, wow? Apple seems to have approved the much-hyped Opera Mini iPhone application according to, well, Opera. Apple has historically only approved web browsing applications that used the WebKit view that Apple includes as part of the iPhone OS SDK. Full press release is after the jump! What do you guys think?Opera Mini App approved for the App Store

Oslo, Norway – April 13, 2010 – Opera today announced its popular mobile browser, Opera Mini has been approved for iPhone and iPod touch on the App Store. Opera Mini will be available as a free download within 24 hours, depending on market.

Opera Mini, with more than 50 million users worldwide, enables fast mobile Web browsing by compressing data by up to 90 percent before sending content to the device, resulting in significantly improved page loading. Users of the app will notice an uptake in speed, especially on slower networks such as the 2G Edge network. Surfing the Web with the Opera Mini App on iPhone and iPod touch will also help users save money because of its data compression capabilities. This will hold especially true while the user is incurring roaming charges.

“We are delighted to offer iPhone and iPod touch users a great browsing experience with the Opera Mini App,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. “This app is another step toward Opera’s goal of bringing the Web to more people in more places.”

The Opera Mini App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.

Resources
A demo video is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpTCS3g-cBY.
Screenshots are available at: www.opera.com/press/resources/.

About Opera Software ASA
Opera Software ASA has redefined web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera’s cross-platform web browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at http://www.opera.com/.

It can’t be a good thing when you have to send out a press release stating that your probably-going-to-be-rejected application has been submitted to probably-be-rejected. Nevertheless, this is exactly what Opera did this morning as it waits for Apple’s approval team to do their thing and check over the code for Opera Mini for iPhone. Naturally there’s a feeling Apple might deny the app since it’s a duplication of a native iPhone function, but from what Opera feels, it should meet Apple’s erratic standards. As we all wait to find out if this will turn into yet another App Store fiasco, hit up the jump to check out the app in actions. It’s quite impressive.

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Big news today for iDEN fans who have been jonesing for the Opus One that we scooped and spec’d way back when in December as today it has been formally announced Motorola. Officially known as the Motorola i1, the device is the world’s first Android Push-To-Talk smartphone and it will be offered “this summer” by Sprint. While pricing is currently unknown, we do know practically everything else about the phone and its specs which include a 3.1″ HVGA display, 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus and dual-LED flash, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 and stupidly a 2.5mm headphone jack. Running Android 1.5 with a custom UI overlay — possibly a less social version of MOTOBLUR — Motorola has also decided to replace the stock Android browser with Opera Mini 5 plus Flash Lite as well as include the amazing Swype virtual keyboard. Yay or nay, folks?

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Our friends from Norway have dropped a little present in the Android Market — especially for all you Opera fans — as Opera Mini 5 beta 2 is available for download starting… now. Opera’s next generation mobile web browser packs tabbed browsing, speed dial, Opera Link, a download manager, and a password manager, amongst other things. Those of you who are sick of the default Android browser and can’t quite cozy up to Dolphin can go ahead and take Opera Mini 5 for a spin… and do let us know what you think about it.

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Opera Mini goes native on Windows Mobile phones

Oslo, Norway – March 4, 2010

Opera Software today launched a native version of Opera Mini 5 beta for Windows Mobile 5- and 6-based handsets.

By integrating Opera Mini with the Windows Mobile platform, Opera is able to deliver an optimized version of the popular Opera Mini browser that dramatically improves performance and the overall user experience. While Opera Mini traditionally requires Java, the new Windows Mobile version does not, which means that Opera Mini will work on any Windows Mobile phone.

The Opera Mini 5 beta for Windows Mobile includes the same rich feature set as the Java-based version. Renowned features, including tabbed browsing, the password manager, bookmarks and Speed Dial, are built-in to deliver convenience while on-the-go.

One of Opera Mini’s major benefits is that it compresses data traffic by up to 90 percent, resulting in significantly improved page-loading and speed. This results in a dramatically reduced data load, which can translate to lower browsing costs when on a pay-per-MB data plan or when on expensive roaming.

“Windows Mobile deserves a mobile browser that looks better, handles better and delivers better than the default browser,” said Dag Olav Norem, Vice President of Products, Opera Software. “Even though Opera has 50 million satisfied Opera Mini users, we always seek ways to improve our browser for each and every mobile phone user out there. Now, we are pleased to offer the world’s most popular mobile Web browser as a native Windows Mobile application.”

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Listen: It took six months of the App Store’s existence for Apple to approve the first batch of third-party browsers for the iPhone and iPod touch. It was a pretty damn exciting event because it was the sort of app everyone was used to being rejected because it replicates native features of the iPhone OS. Well, since then Apple rejected some pretty prolific apps for the same asinine reason to the point that even the flippin’ government took notice and started asking questions. And now, today, we have a new potential app disaster on our hands because Opera, the third-party mobile browser powerhouse, announced it will be previewing Opera Mini for iPhone next week at Mobile World Congress. Opera seems to think its app will be able to slide through the approval processes without issue, but we’re not going to get our hopes up just yet.

Totally random thought we’re just going to throw out there: Anyone think AT&T might be keen on seeing Opera Mini approved? Just think of the Draino of a job Opera’s data compression technology might do to unclog the long, hippie hair stuck in AT&T’s data pipes.

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Browser market share data for January 2010 has hit the streets, and it looks like Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari have gained a little — and we do mean a little — ground. Chrome posted a 5.2% hold of market share in January, up from 4.6% in December of 2009. Apple’s Safari came in with a 4.51% share, up from 4.46% the previous month. Firefox and Internet Explorer both lost a tiny bit of ground in January; IE 62.2% which is down from 62.69%, Firefox 24.41% down from 24.62%. Opera was lumped into “other” on our chart, but registered 2.38% of the browser pie. Per usual, IE and FF still dominate the browser landscape with over 86% of market share. Anyone out there switch browsers recently? If so, which browser did you move to?

[Via ZDNet]

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