The Norwegian company that makes the Opera Internet browser said Tuesday that its software had been approved for iPhone, making it the first browser that competes with Apple’s own software to gain full access to the popular smartphone.
well this is exciting news for iPhone lovers
Shares of Opera, which is based in Oslo, rose more than 2 percent in a falling market as investors anticipated that the announcement would lift Opera’s presence in the United States, where its mobile Opera Mini browser is primarily found on the BlackBerry.
Opera, which said it had 50 million mobile users before the announcement, plans to give away the Opera Mini at Apple’s application store. The software, which promotes faster browsing by compressing Internet data before displaying it on a mobile device, will be available on the iPhone and iPod Touch by Wednesday.
The distribution through Apple is designed to help Opera, which was created in 1995 and has 800 employees, generate more revenue from the advertising and search engines that the company builds into its browser.
“This is certainly good news for us and this will help us expand tremendously in the United States,” said Tor Odland, a spokesman for Opera in Oslo. “We are basically on every other type of device in the world and this covers a big hole for us.”
Apple already offers several browsers, like Incognito, Aquari and Shaking Web, besides its own Safari browser at the iPhone app store. But all of those use Safari’s own software rendering engine or other Apple components.
Opera Mini is the first browser, Mr. Odland said, that has been approved to use its own software engine and components on the iPhone.
The approval came after Opera spent several months in negotiations with Apple. Opera submitted a formal application to Apple a few weeks ago, Mr. Odland said.
Although sales have been rising, Opera has been struggling to maintain profit as it seeks all-important distribution deals with the world’s largest mobile phone and computer makers.
The Norwegian company filed an antitrust complaint in December 2007 with the European Commission challenging Microsoft’s practice of bundling its Internet Explorer browser into its Windows operating system.
The commission upheld Opera’s complaint, and Microsoft agreed to distribute the browsers of its rivals, including Opera, through Windows starting this year in Europe.
But the legal victory has not compensated for the effects of the economic slowdown in Europe and Asia, which along with rising operating costs have weighed on Opera’s financial results. The company’s net profit fell 88 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, the last results reported by Opera, to 4 million kroner, or $680,000, from 31.1 million a year earlier.
For all of 2009, Opera’s profit fell 65 percent to 30.9 million kroner from 87.8 million, as sales rose 59 percent to 184.9 million kroner from 116.3 million in 2008.
“The Apple announcement is good news for Opera but I don’t think it will be a game-changer,” said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst with Gartner in London. “The browser experience with Safari on the iPhone is fine. That is partly why the iPhone is so popular. That will be tough competition for Opera and the other rival browsers
