Opera announced it has developed a version of its Opera Mini web browser for Apple’s iPhone. The Norwegian company said it will demonstrate the new browser at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, Spain.
Jon von Tetzchner, cofounder of Opera Software, said he is “thrilled” to offer the preview and added that the software provides a “fast, feature-rich” experience for iPhone users. Opera on the iPhone brings the company “one step closer” to its mission of “bringing the web to the world,” he said.
Will Apple Approve?
The big question, however, is whether Apple will approve Opera as an iPhone application on its App Store. Apple currently only accepts browsers that run on the WebKit engine — the same engine that powers Apple’s Safari browser.
But Apple has gotten into hot water with the Federal Trade Commission over its initial refusal to certify Voice over Internet Protocol applications, Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group, noted. This time around, Apple will be hard-pressed to exclude competitors.
“Given Apple is under FTC review for their application approval process, I don’t think they can refuse this application — but they could break it or limit its capability,” Enderle said. “For instance, both the ARM processor and the Opera browser support Flash on other platforms, but Apple will likely make sure Flash doesn’t work on Opera any better than it does on Safari on the iPhone.”
“Changing defaults will likely be difficult as well,” Enderle added, “so that it is the Safari browser that opens when you click on a link. If Opera gets on the phone, it is likely that [Google’s] Chrome will soon follow, and Apple will do whatever it can to make sure that never happens.”
Advanced Features
Opera Mini 5, currently in beta, boasts quite a few advanced features over Safari, including tabbed browsing so users…