The Opera Mobile browser has overtaken the iPhone’s Safari browser to become the world’s number-one Web-surfing platform for mobile phones, according to StatCounter. The Dublin-based Web metrics firm, which records more than 10 billion page loads per month, said Opera held a 24.6 percent share of the global market in May compared to the iPhone’s 22.3 percent share.
Given all the media hoopla surrounding Apple’s iPhone, Opera’s leading position might seem surprising. But Opera Software Chief Strategy Officer Rolf Assev notes that smartphone platforms represent just 10 percent of the total global mobile-device market.
“The key for us is having a cross-browser platform that is able to work on all sorts of different devices,” Assev said. “Opera’s strategy is focused [on] lower-end, cheaper phones.”
A Turbocharged Experience
So far, Opera’s mobile strategy is helping the company stay neck and neck with Apple in the global mobile-browser race. And Assev is confident that Opera will continue to do well.
“We have 25 million active users who have downloaded the Opera browser onto their phones,” Assev said. “And every day there are about 200,000 who download the Opera Mini — the Java client which gets the browser onto almost all of the phones.”
Opera is gaining mobile market buoyancy because it has taken the lead in incorporating compression technology into all its browser products, Assev noted. With Opera’s turbo technology behind the browser, the content gets massaged at the server before being sent over to the client, reducing the bandwidth by eight or nine times by the time it arrives on the device.
“This speeds up the user experience by three or four times, making it totally different from the normal experience on mobile phones,” Assev said. “Other browser makers are trying this out, but none have come as far as us.”
Another reason…