Opera Mini gets approved for the iPhone, hits App Store


13 Apr 2010

Norwegian software company Opera has had its Opera Mini web browser approved for use on the iPhone and is now available for download in the App Store – the first third-party web browser on the iPhone.

The Opera Mini web browser for the iPhone was first seen at the Barcelona Mobile World Congress in January 2010 before it had been submitted for approval by Apple and was touted as a faster alternative to Apple’s native Safari by using data compression technologies to load web pages quickly.

Opera Mini for the iPhone has some features that Safari doesn’t, including tabbed browsing, a quick-start homescreen and the ability to toggle image loading as well as switch between mobile view and full-screen view.

“We are delighted to offer iPhone and iPod touch users a great browsing experience with the Opera Mini App,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software.

“This app is another step toward Opera’s goal of bringing the web to more people in more places.”

Opera also had a recent victory in the desktop browser wars when the European Commission directed Microsoft to introduce Choice Screen to Europe, giving PC users the option to install from a choice of several web browsers rather than use Internet Explorer as default. The European Commission followed this course of action following its investigation of Opera’s antitrust complaint.

By Marie Boran

Photo: The Opera Mini web browser for iPhones is available for download from the App Store