DLS @ SXSW - Opera (and my impression of Opera Mini on the iPhone)

Filed under: Browsers, Mobile, sxsw

While we can't show you video of the app for iPhone known as Opera Mini, I did get a chance to briefly play around with it. The SXSW trade show floor has terrible WiFi (at times), and as a result, I think the speed might have been affected. That said, in some cases I found the Opera Mini app to be a faster browser than mobile Safari.

Truthfully, Opera's 90% compression of content on sites doesn't really affect the user, except that it makes pages load faster. It still won't support Flash (since that'd have to be supported on the OS level), but Opera's primary goal is speed, and from what I saw, Opera Mini on the iPhone is pretty darn speedy. Still, you can hear it straight from the senior communication manager's mouth: Opera is fast and the newest version is the fastest yet.

They haven't submitted Opera Mini to Apple yet, but (unfortunately) I'm betting it'll be rejected. It's a shame, however, as the browser/app supports tabs and provides a viable alternative to Apple's built-in browser. How long before Apple is forced to open this piece of their OS up, much in the same fashion that Microsoft has been forced to offer alternatives to IE? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

In the meantime, here's Thomas Ford talking all things Opera (both mini and full) in the newest version.

DLS @ SXSW - Opera (and my impression of Opera Mini on the iPhone) originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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