

Opera Mini takes over the App Store Charts - micrypt
http://www.apple.com/euro/itunes/charts/apps/top10appstorefree.html

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handelaar
If a browser can top the download chart then the app-downloading population
clearly has yet to go anywhere near the demographics of 'normal people'.

Makes you wonder briefly just how incredibly large remains the room for
changes in platform, share and whatnot in the whole smartphone/mobileOS arena.
This little factoid makes it look absolutely vast to me.

~~~
albertzeyer
Why? A browser is nowadays one of the most important tools. If I would be able
to use only one single application on my system, it would be a browser.

And the same is true for almost everyone.

~~~
axod
The behavior of installing _other_ browsers or god forbid multiple browsers,
isn't a mainstream one though.

~~~
powrtoch
It's not as mainstream as we all might like, but I think the case of Firefox
(over 30% usage share currently) makes it pretty clear that it's more than
just tech nerds who care (at least a little) about browser choice.

~~~
endlessvoid94
I disagree. I think Firefox's success is due to early-adopters and those same
early-adopters telling their family and friends to do the same thing.

~~~
powrtoch
Absolutely. But word-of-mouth success is still success (God knows there are
failed word-of-mouth efforts). The point is that it successfully spread beyond
tech circles. Opera hasn't done this yet (at least not in the US, outside of
mobile), but there's still hope that it might.

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nfg
Its bound to given the "free" publicity it gained, in my opinion it isn't
borne out by the quality of the app though.

~~~
josefresco
The publicity that Opera has gained has not been 'free' in the traditional
sense of the word. They are a well known Internet brand who very publicly
shared their app approval status with the world. While I do agree the PR they
got has helped downloads, it's not like they were an unheard of brand that won
the PR-superbowl.

~~~
potatolicious
I dunno. I'm very happy for Opera - but their branding is not really strong at
all outside of tech circles. A lot of "normal" people know about Firefox, but
I've yet to meet someone who uses Opera, or even knows of it, who isn't
significantly connected to our industry.

~~~
axod
Agreed. And Opera usage certainly doesn't seem to be growing. I really wish it
was more standards compliant :/

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CoryMathews
"I really wish it was more standards compliant :/"

uh What? It is and always has been one of the most compliant...

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axod
Sorry, I probably shouldn't have used the term 'standards compliant'.

Don't get me wrong, it's far better than IE, but whereas if you get something
working in firefox, it usually works as is in safari/chrome, there's sometimes
little quirks in Opera.

As a relatively small userbase use Opera, it'd just be nice if it did things
_exactly_ the same as firefox/Chrome - layout, scrolling, iframes, etc etc

I can't remember specific details, but I often notice weird layout quirks, or
issues with scrolling (Not well defined in any standard).

~~~
powrtoch
Traditionally, I think of Opera as the browser not afraid to be truly
standards compliant, even if it means little differences between FF/Safari. I
have seen examples of this, sorry that I can't find them now. Personally I'm
happy to have Opera in this role, because I think it's an important role.

If something does need to be fixed "for Opera", it's generally only a tiny CSS
change, as opposed to the kinds of structural overhauls IE will make you
wrestle with.

In short, in the name of standards, I think it would be nice if FF etc did
things exactly the same as Opera :)

~~~
axod
Can opera even do things like border-radius yet?

~~~
jarek
Yes, as of version 10.50: <http://www.opera.com/docs/changelogs/windows/1050/>

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izendejas
News flash: Opera mini has made a name for itself on every phone that runs
Java. Opera at one point (perhaps still) had the largest market share _on
mobile platforms_ (edited to specify mobile):
[http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_browser-ww-
monthly-200910-...](http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_browser-ww-
monthly-200910-200910-bar)

Opera mini is in beta, so it's supposed to be buggy. But searching for text
within a page, significant speedup on EDGE (and if you're on AT&T's flaky
network this is a plus), etc are all very good reasons to use this.

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tensafefrogs
As I understand it, every website you visit goes through Opera's servers to be
compressed + processed. Isn't this a privacy issue? When Chrome came out and
started doing query suggest (and sending your typing to google, etc.) people
got all uppity about privacy, but I haven't seen one person mention privacy
issues w/ the opera browser.

Additionally, as a website owner, wouldn't this skew your user stats, since
the request would come from Opera's servers and not directly from the phone
(not 100% sure about this, but that's how it seems like it would work).

~~~
jarek
Every website you visit on your laptop goes through your ISP. Every website
you visit on your cell phone goes through your provider. Yes, it's a potential
issue. Yes, there is trust involved.

Any stats package worth its salt would record X-Forwarded-For information,
which is set by the Mini proxies: [http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/opera-
mini-request-header...](http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/opera-mini-request-
headers/#x-forwarded-for)

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adi92
How are they making money from this? They need to run fast servers that cater
to each and every phone that has their app installed anywhere in the world..
won't that be pretty expensive?

~~~
axod
>> "Although the Opera browser will be a free app for download, the company’s
revenue will increase thanks to advertising and search engines built into the
web browser."

from [http://www.techjackal.net/internet/2010/04/14/opera-
browser-...](http://www.techjackal.net/internet/2010/04/14/opera-browser-
develops-app-for-iphone/)

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andymoe
I tried it and the one really annoying thing about it is that because it
serves up images of pre-rendered pages when you flip your phone to landscape
the page image is the wrong dimension. It would be better if it sent you one
image for your current orientation and then fetched in another in the back
ground or something smarter like that. Maybe there are bandwidth concerns but
it makes the user experience sub-par.

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Osiris
I think what this really underscores is that people want choice, and so far
Apple has not allowed any choice. Opera Mini is likely to be the only other
browser available for the iPhone due to the restrictions of the SDK (can't
wait for the new 3.3.1 clause to take effect).

Whether or not it's good (I use it on Android for fast browsing, but it does
have its quirks), people want options.

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tvon
Impressive, it's currently at the top for every country (for Free Apps). I
guess that's what a very public review process will do for you.

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mattparcher
I'm not too impressed with the app, myself. The interface and interaction are
buggy and non-native.

I agree with John Gruber:

 _"I can’t see recommending this app to anyone other than those who use the
EDGE network frequently.

But: it’s free."_

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1262790>

~~~
guywithabike
That's my assessment, too. Crummy UI and frustrating navigation. But thanks to
San Francisco's terrible, awful, horrible, no-good 3G network, the speed
improvement over Safari makes it worth it for basic pages, when it doesn't
simply break the page.

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thought_alarm
It received a preposterous amount of hype for what amounts to nothing more
than a old-school mobile web browser with a terribly awkward user interface.
It does serve to remind users just how good native iPhone apps are compared to
cross-platform apps like Opera.

~~~
teamonkey
On a GPRS connection with a smaller screen with no multitouch the "terribly
awkward" user interface is intuitive and makes a lot of sense. That's not what
the iphone is though.

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watmough
Since Opera Mini apparently uses an intermediary cloud server, how does it
handle ajax-heavy sites?

I'm thinking of sites that update every second or so.

~~~
jarek
Short answer: it doesn't. Every Javascript change to the page after the onload
has finished triggers a full reload.

Long answer: [http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/opera-
mini-5-developers/#...](http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/opera-
mini-5-developers/#standardssupport)

~~~
watmough
Thanks for the answer.

I just got round to trying it. It's awful. From the first screen onwards, it's
everything that the iPhone is trying to leave behind. Clunky, unresponsive
navigation, non-standard user controls. Utterly wretched. Delete ASAP.

~~~
jarek
I'm glad you had the chance to try it and find it not to your liking.

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ugh
It’s free and it got a lot of press everywhere. What do you expect? Look at
Bird Strike. It’s free this week and in 15 of the 22 shown top tens. It
probably didn’t get nearly as much press as Opera.

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chett
HN looks better on Opera Mini compared to Safari. On first load I no longer
needed to fiddle with the zoom level. It also wraps comments to fit the width
of the screen when zooming in.

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jwr
Of course, what would you expect? Given the publicity, everyone downloaded it
to try it. It's free.

Now, if there were charts for the apps people actually _USE_ …

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jpablo
Honest question: Can you view flash content in Opera Mini ?

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twobar
No.

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dusing
It also kinda sucks. Past loading the page fast, it is just hard to use, and
everything renders so poorly. Proof of concept at this point.

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shmichael
Am I the only one who can't get Hacker News to show on it?

~~~
a-priori
Possibly, since I'm posting this from Opera Mini. That said, everyone who says
its buggy and slow are bang on.

~~~
shmichael
It took about 5 minutes to load. MINUTES. I suspect they don't have any cache
servers near Israel.

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JMiao
people want what they can't have.

