Opera Hits 100 Million Users, Half Of Them Mobile

According to a recent press release from Opera, 100 million people worldwide are using their browsers, around 50% of them on mobile devices.

Opera’s mobile growth has been helped with the release of their Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers onto Android, Symbian, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and practically any Java-enabled handset.

Assisted by the Microsoft browser ballot, Opera reached 50 million desktop users in March, across Windows, Linux and Mac platforms, a 30% increase year on year.

The number of mobile users could rise quite considerably should Opera Mini be approved on the Apple App Store, allowing iPhone users to swap Apple’s proprietary Safari with a quicker and more feature rich mobile browser. As it stands at the moment, Opera Mini is nearing 20 days since it was submitted for App Store approval.

“Our focus on speed, security, innovation and usability continues to yield results. We always listen to the needs and wants of our users, and they reward us by choosing Opera,” said Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder, Opera Software.

“Opera’s record growth shows that we are on the right track, and that as user needs grow, we are growing right along with them,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. “Opera for Desktop delivers the fastest browsing experience on the planet, with a visionary approach to features and a user-friendly design.”

Whilst Operas market share is still relatively small, the software company have continued to innovate, producing what are probably the fastest desktop and mobile browsers available to internet users. By utilising a super fast JavaScript engine in it’s desktop browser and compressing mobile web data by way of proxy servers on handsets, Opera have built a solid user base that will only continue to grow.