Opera Mini 6 released for Apple products

Many Apple owners will be rejoicing to hear that Opera Mini 6 for the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad was released earlier this week. This comes some time after the BlackBerry and Android versions of the software were released in March.

Phillip Gronvold, a product marketing manager at Opera said that while the product was delayed for a few months, the reasons were justified.

“We delayed ourselves on the iOS platform because we wanted to make sure we really were up to par on every iOS device that is out there. It's been over one year since we released the last version, and it's very rare that we spend that much time between versions. But we had to make sure Opera Mini 6 performed right, felt right, on every iOS device, going back to the original iPhone and the first iPod Touch, and that just simply took time. But we think we've got it right.”

“Every platform is important to us, but the iPhone is hugely important to Opera, especially in the U.S. But Safari is rock solid, iOS is rock solid and we have no problem saying that. And so, from Opera Mini 5 to Opera Mini 6, we've made a big shift in what we're trying to do.”

“We're not trying to get people to choose Opera Mini over Safari, we want people to use it in addition to Safari, as a complimentary browser.”

Opera has proven popular with the mobile audience. StatCounter, a research firm have indicated that the browser has a 21.9% share of the mobile market.

“The iOS platform does not handle well connecting on a crowded Wi-Fi network,” Gronvold said. “Most browsers don't. But with Opera Mini 6, that is our strong suit. That is where we excel. So, in the case where you don't get that quick page load on Safari as you might want, we can load pages for you faster than Safari can.”

Opera Mini 6 pulls quick loading pages from compressed versions of websites that are stored and updated regularly in the cloud, via server banks controlled by Opera. He added “The compressed files that make up the Web page, we send that file to your phone, and it allows you to get that Web page much quicker.”

Gronvold said that due to the clever compression technology, Opera can serve a web page using one fifth of the data size it would normally take. “So when you're on a roaming network and you need the Internet but you want to keep down high roaming data costs, you could use about 80% less data and that means you could save a bit of money using Opera too,” Gronvold stated. “For Opera Mini, speed is No 1, and No. 2 is data, and we've gained users by focusing on these two things.”

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