Article by George Norman

On 11 Feb 2010

Opera Software, the company behind the similarly named browser, announced the other day that it will showcase Opera Mini for iPhone at the 2010 Mobile World Congress (MWC). Opera Mini for iPhone, which promises to offer up to 6 times faster download speeds, and up to 10 times smaller data traffic, looks like an interesting alternative to the iPhone’s native browser, Safari.

The big question here is will Apple welcome Opera Mini for iPhone in the App Store. A clear example of how stuck-up Apple can be was when it asked the developer of Flash of Genius to remove references to Google’s Android operating system from the app’s description if they wanted to be accepted in the App Store. Apple said the app was not rejected, just that it would grant it access to the App Store after the Android reference was taken out.


The Google Voice controversy also comes to mind. The Google Voice web app was released late this January – a web app, not a native iPhone app because Apple said Google Voice “duplicates features that come with the iPhone.” Initially Google developers came up with a native Google Voice app, but then they had to turn it into a web app because Apple wouldn’t have it any other way. And the same thing happened to Google Latitude. The native app had to be replaced with a web app because Apple did not want users to get confused – as in confuse Google Latitude with Maps on the iPhone.

Getting back to Opera and Opera Mini for iPhone, announcing a browser and actually getting it into the App Store are two totally different things.

“Currently, you can only make a custom rapper around the built-in Mobile Safari/WebKit/Nitro rendering and JavaScript engines. With browsers being one of the primary attack vectors for malware and viruses, the prohibition against code-interpreting in the iPhone SDK, and Apple’s strong desire to control and be responsible for their own core technologies, it’s quite possible Opera Mini won’t get approved,” explained TiPB’s Rene Ritchie.

Opera Software did not submit Opera Mini for iPhone to the App Store. But the company is confident that if it were to do so, Apple “will not deny their users a choice in Web browser experience.”

Can’t wait to see what happens if Opera does submit the app and Apple denies it access to the App Store. Keep in mind that Opera Software is the company that spurred the Microsoft antitrust case in Europe. The antitrust case that at one point got Microsoft to consider Windows 7 E, a Windows 7 version that came with no browser.

The case ended this December when the European Commission accepted Microsoft’s ballot screen proposal. European users that have Windows and IE set as the default browser will be presented with a ballot screen (Microsoft calls it choice screen) that lists a total of 12 browsers. Microsoft will use the ballot screen in Europe for a period of 5 years.



Tags: Opera Software, Opera Mini, Apple, iPhone, Mobile World Congress, MWC

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