Opera, maker of the increasingly popular Opera browser, has submitted a version of its mobile browser, Opera Mini, to Apple’s App Store.
Opera showed off the iPhone version of Opera Mini during meetings at Mobile World Congress 2010 in February. However, many thought the product reveal was more a marketing ploy than anything, contending that Apple would never approve the app anyway.
Apple has long been guarded about approving apps that duplicate, or try to improve upon, the iPhone’s native applications, UI and content. The very public submission of Opera Mini to the App Store could be a move by Opera to shine a light on the company’s approval process.
Early reviews of Opera Mini have been positive. The company contends that its “server-side” rendering allows Opera Mini to compress data by up to 90 percent before sending it to the phone, resulting in faster page loads.
“The Opera Mini for iPhone sneak peek during MWC told us that we have something special,” said Jon von Tetzchner, co-founder, Opera Software, in a statement. “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 consistently boasts “the world’s most popular mobile browser.” While unconfirmed, the company has reported the browser is on more than 50 million mobile phones worldwide.
