On Wednesday, Opera Software pushed a little farther into the mobile browsing world with the release of Opera Mini 5 beta. With its latest release, Opera is hoping to solidify its position as the most popular browser for mobile phones.
Opera is leading the mobile-browsing market with more placements on mobile devices than any competing browser. More than 30 million people around the world are using the Opera Mini to browse more than 12 billion Web pages each month.
The fifth generation of Opera Mini is optimized for any mobile device. New features include a sleeker user interface, speed-dial bookmarks and tabs, and a password manager. Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner said people who use the new version of Opera are never more than a click away from where they want to go online.
“In our own research, we have learned that the number-one reason people use Opera Mini is because it is easy — easy to use the Web you know,” von Tetzchner said. “The idea of navigating the vastness of the Web from such a small screen can be a daunting leap, which is why we have long committed to make the browsing experience you are familiar with from your PC easy to do on your mobile phone.”
Mimicking Desktop Browsing
The company pointed out its favorite Opera Mini 5 features. The first is the interface’s look and feel similar to desktop browsers, with intuitive navigation for browsing history, quick access to URLs users commonly visit, and the ability to open pages in new tabs.
Opera is bringing tabbed browsing to the mobile Web. Opera Mini 5 tabs let users browse several sites at the same time, and the browser is optimized for both touchscreen and keypad input.
Opera Mini 5 serves as a virtual memory bank that securely saves all passwords for e-mail,…