Opera Software is today one step closer to realising their dream of releasing a mobile browser for every mobile operating system after submitting their iPhone-ready internet browser; Opera Mini to the Apple App Store.
Whilst enjoying success on a large number of devices, Opera still has to navigate the choppy waters of the App Store approval process, made all-the-more difficult by the fact Opera Mini will encroach the iPhone’s default browser, Safari.
Opera has already released several browsers for Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile operating systems. Opera Mini on the iPhone looks to utilise the same technology as it’s mobile counterparts, incorporating tabbed browsing, webpage searching and a powerful bookmarking system.
Apple has been notorious in their denial of iPhone applications that mimic the same functionality as the core iPhone apps already present on the device. In order to differentiate it’s browser from Apple’s Safari, Opera has implemented a technique present on their other mobile browsers that adapts the way Opera Mini renders website code, rendering the pages server-side instead on on the device itself.
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Server-side rendering is said to reduce the load time of web pages by up to 90% but most importantly for Opera, the technique looks to reduce the need to step on Apple’s ever-so-sensitive toes.
We will keep you updated on the approval process, a process that can span weeks rather than days. Apple will no doubt be running through the submitted code with a fine toothed comb, there could be a lot more to this story.
N.B – We have embedded the official demo video to give you an idea of what you can expect from the new browser:
[Source – Bits, NYTimes]
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