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After three weeks of waiting to see if Apple would approve the app, the Opera Mini app was finally released and quickly sailed to the top of the iPhone app download chart, surpassing one million downloads within hours of its release. Due to its strict guidelines on app approval and Apple’s interests in using its own built-in browser, Mobile Safari, many questioned whether Opera Mini would ever be available. After a lengthy approval process, it has finally been approved, so now, for the first time, Apple is facing browser competition on the iPhone.
A longtime player in the Internet browser market, Opera has a very small share of the traditional browser market. However, in the emerging world of mobile browsers, the story is different, with Opera Mini being the most popular browser. With the huge iPhone market now available to them and no competition other than Mobile Safari, Opera’s dominance in this market has the potential to skyrocket.
A key reason for Opera’s success so far is its speed. Typically around three times faster in browsing than the competition, Opera leverages this advantage by processing the data on Opera’s own servers and sending the compressed data to the phone, unlike other browsers that use the phone itself to receive and compute all the data. . The difference when using a dedicated wireless network is not that big, but when using 2G or 3G networks, the improvement is considerable. The fact that the phone receives less data also reduces the impact for those who pay Internet roaming charges.
Opera submitted the app for approval to Apple in mid-March, and it took three weeks to get approved. Meanwhile, there was much debate on the blog network and in the media about whether the app would be approved in light of its threat to Safari’s monopoly on the iPhone browser market. In the past, Apple has used a clause in its terms and conditions that prohibits apps that “duplicate existing functionality” as a basis for rejecting apps, and many believed that Opera Mini would not be allowed on this basis.
An aggressive advertising campaign by Opera, which included issuing press releases to coincide with the filing of the application and placing a prominent timer on its website to see how long the approval took.
The process would make sure all eyes were on Apple, which could have helped the process.
Another hurdle is that Apple doesn’t allow third-party apps to run their own Javascript and rendering processes on the iPhone. Since Opera’s servers handle this side of things rather than the phone itself, it can’t be downvoted on this ground; this is the main hurdle for other competitors like Firefox and the main reason why they won’t be following Opera on the iPhone any time soon. .
For now Opera has won the battle but not the war. There’s a long way to go to reach Safari’s established user base. There are also privacy concerns about how Opera handles user data on its own servers and the possibility of advertising in the future.