iPhone users flock to Opera Mini

May 28, 2010 - May 28, 2010

Global rankings reordered in new State of the Mobile Web Report

Oslo, Norway – May 28, 2010

More than 2.6 million people used Opera Mini on their iPhones, in the two weeks following April’s mid-month launch. This surge in new Opera Mini users reshaped both the top 10 countries and the top handsets for mobile Web usage, according to Opera’s State of the Mobile Web Report, issued today. The United States jumped two spots in the top 10 country ranking, displacing South Africa and Nigeria. Globally, the iPhone immediately became the third-most-popular device for Opera Mini users worldwide.

Opera’s State of the Mobile Web Report, published monthly, provides information on the top global trends affecting the mobile Web. The full report is available from http://www.opera.com/smw/ (English only). In addition to a full review of Opera Mini on the iPhone, the report highlights global statistics and reviews the mobile browsing trends in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Global trends

  • In April 2010, Opera Mini had more than 58.9 million users, a 6.6% increase from March 2010 and more than 152% compared to April 2009.
  • Those 58.9 million people viewed more than 26.3 billion pages in April 2010. Since March, page views have gone up 1.6%. Since April 2009, page views have increased 203%.
  • In April 2010, Opera Mini users generated over 398 million MB of data for operators worldwide. Since March, the data consumed went up by 0.6%. Data in Opera Mini is compressed by up to 90%. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 3.7 petabytes of data in April. Since April 2009, data traffic is up 164%.
  • The top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage in April 2010 were: Russia, Indonesia, India, China, Ukraine, United States, South Africa, Nigeria, Vietnam and the United Kingdom. Due to Opera Mini on the iPhone launch, the United States leaped ahead of South Africa and Nigeria.

iPhone impact

  • In Part 4 of this month’s report, we take a closer look at the impact of Opera Mini becoming available on the Apple iPhone.
  • In April 2010, there were more than 2.6 million unique users of Opera Mini on the iPhone (from April 13-30).
  • As predicted in last month’s report, the Apple iPhone is the #3 device used by Opera Mini users worldwide in the month of April 2010.
  • Most likely due to the interest generated by Opera Mini’s new availability on the iPhone, the United States jumped from #8 to #6 in the top 10 countries list.
  • The United States is ranked #1 in terms of Opera Mini users on the iPhone, and the iPhone is the #1 handset used by Opera Mini users in the United States, well ahead of BlackBerry (which previously occupied the top spot).
  • The United Kingdom is ranked #4 in terms of Opera Mini users on the iPhone, and the iPhone is the 5th most popular handset used by Opera Mini users in the United Kingdom.
  • Russia is ranked #7 in terms of Opera Mini users on the iPhone, but the iPhone is not one of the top 10 handsets in Russia according to Opera Mini usage.
  • Countries outside of the top 10 where Opera Mini on the iPhone has become popular include: Japan, Germany, France, Canada, Netherlands, Italy and South Korea.

CIS trends

  • In Part 3 of this month’s report we look at countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The top 11 countries using Opera Mini in that region are Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
  • Some numbers: From April 2009 to April 2010, page views in the top 11 countries of the CIS increased by 84%, unique users increased by 63% and data transferred increased by 97%.
  • Growth rates in the CIS: Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan lead the top 11 countries of the region in terms of page-view growth (508,484.1% and 663.9%, respectively). Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan also lead the top 11 countries of the region in growth of unique users (194,769.2% and 551.2%, respectively). Armenia leads the top 11 countries of the region in page views per user, with each user browsing 1085 pages on average each month.
  • In the CIS, the big winners (as usual) are Vkontakte, Mail.Ru, odnoklassniki.ru, Yandex and Google.
  • Opera Mini users in the CIS generally prefer Nokia handsets, followed by Sony Ericsson and Samsung.

What we say

“While many iconic smartphones are superb web-browsing tools, today it is possible to make nearly every phone capable of browsing the Web gracefully,” said Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder, Opera Software. “Because the number of mobile-web users will eventually dwarf wireline users, making the Web works flawlessly only on a handful of mobile devices is to turn our collective backs on more than a billion new users. We believe access to the Web is a universal right, and as more companies embrace developing sites for the wide spectrum of mobile-web users, we will come closer to that goal than ever before.”

State of the Mobile Report archive: http://www.opera.com/smw/archive/

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