Oslo, Norway – October 24, 2006
Opera Software today announced thatOpera Miniâ„¢, the free Web browser for mobile phones, is available for thepopular BlackBerryâ„¢ and Palm© handsets. Opera Miniâ„¢ offers BlackBerryâ„¢ andPalm© Treoâ„¢ users a faster delivery of Web pages and overall better userexperience.
According to Gartner reports*, 42.1 million PDA and smartphone unitsshipped globally in the first half of 2006. Millions of Blackberryâ„¢ andPalm© Treoâ„¢ business users have the opportunity to potentially increaseproductivity and decrease data traffic cost by downloading and using OperaMiniâ„¢ on their handsets. Opera Miniâ„¢ offers faster and better pagerendering while saving on memory and data usage, which reflects as ahealthier handset and smaller bill for those with limited data plans.Opera Miniâ„¢ achieves this via a server-based component that compresses Webpages, ultimately reducing the size of data transferred and associatedcosts.
“Opera Miniâ„¢ is a no-frills, instant gateway to the World Wide Web ontoday’s basic line of mobile phones,” says Rolf Assev, Chief CommercialOfficer, Opera Software. “But we see folks in the industry who arethrilled to use it on higher-end devices. People who are accustomed tomobile browsing in addition to e-mailing or texting, enjoy the speed andreliability Opera Miniâ„¢ offers on today’s professional handsets. The factis, it’s a choice available to everyone, novice or pro.”
Opera Miniâ„¢ launched in February this year and has since exceeded 1billion pages viewed. There are currently more than 7 million usersworldwide and industry leading operators, such as Europe’s T-Mobile, arealready recognizing Opera Miniâ„¢ as a valuable service enabler byinstalling the browser on select handsets. Usage statistics reported byOpera in August revealed that Google search is the most popular .com sitevisited using Opera Miniâ„¢, followed by Gmail.com, Friendster.com,MySpace.com, Yahoo Messenger and hi5.com.
“We see that users are browsing with Opera Miniâ„¢ in the same way as they areaccustomed to on their desktop. They use Mini to find information ornetwork, even bid on eBay while on-the-go,” says Rolf Assev, ChiefCommercial Officer, Opera Software.
With this announcement, Opera is kicking off a Your Web, Your Choicecampaign. Applicants can visit http://www.opera.com/contest/operamini/ toelect their choice of currently available BlackBerryâ„¢ or Treoâ„¢ models andvoice why they need Opera Miniâ„¢ to improve their on-the-go lifestyle. Thebest entry will be chosen by Opera to win their Opera Miniâ„¢-poweredBlackBerryâ„¢ or Treoâ„¢ of choice. The closing date for this campaign isNovember 30th.
The browser is available for free. To download, visit http://mini.opera.com from your handset.
* Gartner press release, October 9, 2006, “Gartner Says Worldwide CombinedPDA and Smartphone Shipments Market Grew 57 Percent in the First Half of2006”: http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=496997
Availability
Opera Miniâ„¢ is available free of charge via download at mini.opera.com. AnInternet Data Plan is required to access the Internet. Verizon Wirelesscustomers are currently not supported. Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) supportis required for the Treoâ„¢. J2ME installation is available athttp://java.sun.com/products/sjwtoolkit/download.html.
About Opera Miniâ„¢
Opera Miniâ„¢ is a free mobile Web browser designed to bring the real Web tothe world’s mobile phones. The free Opera Miniâ„¢ mobile Web browser waslaunched worldwide in January, and is available both as a free download from http://mini.opera.com as well as through pre-installments on selectedhandsets from leading operators and handset manufacturers such asT-Mobile, debitel and Motorola. Read more at http://www.opera.com/miniGet yours from http://mini.opera.com! Illustrations and graphics: http://www.opera.com/press/images/mini/