GigaOM » Tech

RockMelt Goes Mobile With iPhone Offering

Colleen Taylor — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 04:00:59 +0000

RockMelt, the Mountain View, Calif.-based startup, is set to launch a mobile version of its browser with built-in social features. RockMelt’s move into mobile this week comes just one month after the public debut of its desktop browser.

The 33-person company is competing against giants such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla, and it needs to use its small size as an advantage by quickly out-innovating its rivals. The new mobile browser will allow current RockMelt users to access their bookmarks, contacts, and settings on their iOS devices, in addition to their desktops. (The app is still waiting on approval from Apple, but RockMelt expects it to be available by the end of the week.) The company has versions for Android and other mobile operating systems in the pipeline.

Other browsers already have desktop-to-mobile porting capabilities; the most notable are probably Mozilla’s Firefox Sync and Fennec and Opera’s Link. RockMelt says its offering is different because mobile sync is an automatic, core aspect of the browser’s user experience– not a feature available upon request.

“We’re not going for the power users, the ones who already know how to customize a browser,” Vishria said. Instead, RockMelt is aimed at the majority of today’s web users, people who navigate the web through a couple of websites like Facebook and would never tweak their browser preferences on their own.

RockMelt, which was co-founded by Vishria and Tim Howes, has raised approximately $10 million from venture capital investors including Andreesen Horowitz, First Round Capital, and Ron Conway.

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GetJar Ban of Opera Highlights Growing App Store Competition

Ryan Kim — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:30:44 +0000

UPDATED. The app store battle is just starting as more and more players from Amazon, Verizon and now Opera are getting into the act. And with all the growing competition for what could be an estimated $38 billion market by 2015, it’s inevitable that this jockeying is leading to some competitive measures. The latest sign of that is independent app store GetJar’s move to ban Opera Mini after Opera announced it was launching its own app market within its mobile browser.

The ban, first announced on GetJar’s Twitter account, shows that app store operators are closing any opportunities for competitors to come on in and set up shop within their stores. GetJar said in a Tweet that Opera violated its terms and conditions and said, “one thing we can’t do is promote competing app stores.” In a comment to TechCrunch, Opera said it was working with GetJar to find a solution to include Opera Mini, which has historically been a popular download on GetJar. GetJar is expected to share more about its stance in a blog post today. But I expect others like Apple and Google to also reject Opera Mini in their stores on the same grounds GetJar cited. There are clearly repercussions from setting up an app store in someone else’s app store.

This should come as little surprise. With the market for apps booming and everyone and their mother setting up app stores, the owners of those stores are now eyeing anyone who can compete with them. It’s one thing to compete openly, but marketplace operators are clearly drawing the line at competitors trying to leverage those markets only to direct users to purchase apps elsewhere.

That’s what Google has been quietly doing with Android Market. If you recall, it pulled Kongregate’s Arcade app, which wasn’t technically an app store at all, but a browser that featured free Flash games from its website. But because the app apparently too closely resembled a competing app store, it was pulled and later reinstated when the app was remade to look more like a browser.

I recently reported on another app that was pulled from Android Market, called Visual VoiceMail, an app from longtime developer PhoneFusion. The reasons behind the rejection were never explicitly provided by Google, but after doing a little digging, it looks like it was also pulled for competing with Google. The app has an option for buying an ad-free version directly from PhoneFusion’s website. The ad-free version has been available for at least a year, but it appears Visual VoiceMail was removed for violating Google’s non-compete rules. That’s the message Google and others are quietly sending out to developers. You can be in our store, but don’t go competing with us on our own turf. That’s what a Google employee basically told me after the Kongregate situation, and that’s increasingly how all app stores will operate.

That makes me wonder how Amazon will set up the Amazon App Store on Android phones. Increasingly, it looks like it will have to strike deals to get placement on the phones themselves, because I doubt Google will allow Amazon to use Android Market as a way to distribute its store.

This is part of a larger push by store owners to channel all transactions through their own markets. Apple has made a lot of news with its subscription plan for publishers, requiring them to use its in-app purchase mechanism and cutting off their ability to direct consumers to offsite sales. Google recently announced its own in-app payment system, and I’m guessing it will also soon force developers to use its payment system over alternative systems. It’s all about keeping as much revenue as possible in-house. We’re still early in the app store revolution and since it shows no signs of slowing, anyone with an app store is looking to ensure they keep as much of the money that passes through their marketplaces as possible. GetJar’s ban of Opera is just the latest example, but expect more shots to be fired as the app store battle turns into an all-out app store war.

UPDATE: GetJar CMO Patrick Mork wrote a letter to GetJar users explaining the rare rejection. He reiterated that GetJar welcomes competition but can’t abide in apps that divert customers away from GetJar’s store. He said GetJar has worked with Opera for months on the issue and is disappointed to pull Opera, which has recorded more than 30 million downloads on GetJar.

The simple problem is that Opera mini decided to include a competing app store in its browser. Although we don’t have any issue with this in principle, in practice it means that consumers might start using this app store instead of visiting GetJar to get their favourite apps. This robs GetJar of traffic and therefore of the advertising necessary to keep our service free for the more than 25 million consumers that use GetJar. It also jeopardizes an ecosystem that has generated over 1.6 billion downloads for tens of thousands of developers who depend on us to make money from their apps. Don’t get me wrong: we’re happy to go head-to-head with any other app store and are certain that once you’ve tried the Opera App store you’ll find the depth of content, discovery and download from GetJar more compelling than ever. But it’s an another thing entirely to help competitors grow their business at our expense or that of our community.

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Opera Releases Opera Mobile for Android Browser Battle

Ryan Kim — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 15:26:20 +0000

Opera signaled it’s ready to do battle in the browser wars on Android with a release of Opera Mobile, its full browser. The release of Opera Mobile 10.1 beta follows up on the launch of Opera Mini on Android in July and brings a number of features that should help it compete in an increasingly crowded space.

Opera Mobile will bring an extra boost of speed via Opera Turbo, pinch-to-zoom, speed dialing, geo-location support, bookmark syncing on multiple devices, tabbed bookmarks and long-click menus. You can render pages locally for more clarity of if you use Turbo Boost, you can have Opera’s servers compress the data and speed it to you faster. The app can be downloaded here.

This is Opera’s chance to really compete on Android. The Mini launch was nice but it didn’t bring the feature set of Opera, which is necessary to compete against Firefox, Dolphin Browser HD, Skyfire and the stock Android browser. Kevin liked Opera Mini back in July saying it was fast and data efficient but he found the rendering and zooming a little dated. Opera Mobile aims to build off the success of Mini while improving some of the look and feel. So far, it looks like the zooming is better though the rendering of images can be a little pixelated at first. One thing Opera Mobile doesn’t offer right now is Flash support, which is reportedly coming in a future release.

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Opera Saves $27.4B in Yearly Data Costs. Except It Doesn’t.

Kevin C. Tofel — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:50:49 +0000

The number of handset owners turning to Opera for their browsing needs has doubled since September 2009, and the company served up 36.9 billion web pages last month, an increase of 9 percent over the prior month. Clearly, more consumers are using Opera to gain a faster browsing experience while using less bandwidth; Opera says it compresses web pages up to 90 percent before serving them to a handset. By squeezing down the web, Opera today says it saves consumers $27.4 billion in annual data costs. But the numbers don’t add up.

To figure out the data plan cost savings, Opera took the “lowest price-per-MB plan in each of the top 10 countries and created a global average.” That’s a reasonable proxy method: Look at the data costs in a sample population that represents the largest numbers of users to create an average cost per megabyte of data.

Opera knows how much bandwidth it saves through its compression technology and how many pages it served, so the cost of that bandwidth savings is really the only variable. On the surface then, it sounds like a reasonable approach to calculate the annual data cost savings.

Then I looked at the top 10 countries Opera lists as places with the most users of its browser and see that the U.S. is number eight on the list. Given that I just wrote about how the current U.S. mobile broadband market is undergoing some upheaval with a multitude of new networks and plans, I wondered what figure Opera used for data costs in the U.S.

Opera lists the average cost for each of the top 10 countries right in the report, and the U.S. figures are drastically higher than any other country. More importantly, Opera figures the average cost-per-megabyte in the U.S. to be $2 and extrapolates that to a monthly savings of $141 for Opera users in the United States; an amount that’s three to 47 times higher than the savings in the other nine countries.

Source: Opera.com

So who’s paying $2 per megabyte in the U.S.? Expensive data plans for feature phones come to mind and indeed, such devices are the perfect target audience for an Opera browser, because Opera’s software excels at bringing a smartphone-like web experience to feature phones. Here’s the problem, though: Of the top 10 devices that use Opera in the U.S., seven of them are smartphones, says the Opera report. And how many smartphone users are paying $2 per megabyte for their data plans?

The iPhone is the most-used device for Opera in the U.S. (although I still question how many iPhone owners really use it). Until recently, iPhone owners paid $30 for 5 GB of data. But let’s look at the highest data plan option for the iPhone on a cost-per-megabyte basis. That would be AT&T’s new 200 MB plan at $15 per month, for example, working out to 7.5 cents per megabyte, or a small fraction of what Opera is using for its cost savings estimate. This plan has the highest cost for iPhone users because the next step up is 2 GB for $25 or a cost of 1.25 cent per megabyte — an even farther cry from Opera’s $2 figure. Opera’s cost estimates in the other nine countries are all under a dollar a megabyte, so the U.S. price is heavily skewing the potential cost savings upward.

Having used Opera Mini and Opera Mobile, I can vouch for the positive experience Opera browsers bring to mobile devices. In fact, I highly recommend any mobile device owner to take Opera for a spin. But spinning numbers that don’t make sense to promote a product does a disservice to the product, and the user base for it. Opera can and does save on mobile broadband data use and yes, it’s difficult to quantify that savings to operators and consumers. Due to the complexity of the broadband market in various countries, maybe Opera should re-think its approach to show cost savings at a global level.

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Opera Sees Feature Phone Opportunity in New Ad Network

Kevin C. Tofel — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 19:12:17 +0000

Opera today announced it’s entering into the mobile advertising market with the Open Mobile Ad Exchange, an advertising platform that takes advantage of the company’s large, global user-base. Opera lays claim to more than 66.5 million handset owners who use the Opera Mini browser, primarily on feature phones. The company has yet to detail financial terms between developers and publishers who wish to use the Open Mobile Ad Exchange, and is instead taking contact information from interested parties on the new advertising network website.

The Open Mobile Ad Exchange is a clear next step from Opera’s January purchase of AdMarvel: The URL for the network uses AdMarvel in the domain, for example. Opera reportedly paid $8 million in cash, and could add up to $15 million more to the purchase price, if certain targets are met by the AdMarvel team in San Mateo, Calif. On the client side, Opera says developers and publisher can use “easily-embedded JavaScript” for the ad service and will benefit from “near-real-time reporting and analytics.”

So why is Opera getting into mobile ads? The company provides a free web browser, so it needs to find new revenue opportunities. Leveraging its browser product for advertising makes sense now because the mobile ad market is still in its infancy. Recently, research firm IDC estimated that mobile advertising will generate $500 million in 2010. That isn’t much when you consider how many players are splitting those revenues, but as the world continues moving towards mobility, the future looks bright. Karsten Weide, research VP of media and entertainment for IDC, sums it up best:

Mobile advertising will not make or break a publisher or network over the next five years. It grows extremely fast but simply does not attract enough absolute dollars. But 10 years from now, will you be sad if you did not get into mobile advertising today? You sure will be.

It’s ironic that Opera chose today to launch the Open Mobile Ad Exchange. Just yesterday, I pondered about content providers and developers giving up on feature phones since comScore reported that more smartphone users in the U.S. were downloading apps and using the mobile web than feature phone users. It’s too early to simply abandon feature phones just yet, as they account for roughly 90 percent of all handsets sold in the world. Opera Mini is the most popular browser for this class of device, bringing a near-smartphone mobile web experience to low-end feature phones.

With the new advertising network, Opera is wisely panning for gold in a river that others have passed by. Competing networks such as iAds from Apple and Google’s AdMob effort can fight it out in the smartphone space while Opera leverages its vast user base on feature phones. But recent data from Smaato, a mobile ad measurement firm, shows that Opera’s feature phone strategy may not be far-fetched: Ad clicks on low end devices are growing and on pace to rule the roost. In light of the move toward tiered data plans, Opera’s new ad network could even gain some traction from smartphone users: Opera Mini compresses data throughput by up to 90 percent, making it appealing to smartphones tied to a small data package.

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Poll: Opera Says 2.6M iPhone Owners Use Opera Mini – Do You?

Kevin C. Tofel — Fri, 28 May 2010 19:46:15 +0000

Some 2.6 million unique iPhone owners are using Opera Mini, according to its maker’s latest State of the Mobile Web report, the first full dataset since the browser arrived for Apple’s iPhone last month. In fact, the iPhone now tops the U.S. list of devices on which Opera Mini is used and is No. 3 on a worldwide basis. But while that sounds good, some of the numbers don’t seem to add up.

For starters, in light of the Opera Mini’s reported 58.9 million users in April, 2.6 million of them using the browser on an iPhone is nothing to sneeze at. And given historical data showing iPhone web use to be high, even when its worldwide market share is low, I’d expect them to greatly boost the overall page views served by Opera Mini. But that’s not the case as shown by Opera’s own graph of PVs in April:

In fact, the browser’s page view trend showed higher growth rates prior to the availability of Opera Mini on the iPhone, not after it. February is an outlier, but that’s likely due to having fewer days in the month. Opera says that in April, the 26.3 million page views transcoded was a scant 1.6 percent higher than in March. Wouldn’t you expect that the web-hungry iPhones would cause April’s numbers to jump? They would — if iPhone users were actually using Opera Mini. Much as I suspected would happen, I believe that Opera Mini is getting installed on iPhones, but it’s not actually being used for browsing in any significant way.

At last check, Opera Mini was ranked as the No. 3 free productivity application in Apple’s iTunes Store, which adds credence to the installation base. But the current version of Opera Mini has a solidly mediocre three-star rating, with 1,495 users giving it five stars and a nearly equal 1,424 users rating it with just one. Notably, you can’t make Opera Mini the default browser on an iPhone.

Opera’s data is on one side of the ring, while my own thoughts are in the other. Maybe this is a good time to for our readers that own an iPhone or iPod touch to cast the final punch. Forget what Opera says about who uses Opera Mini on the iPhone — the real question is: Do you?

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Opera to Chrome: We're Also Faster Than a Potato!

Liz Gannes — Fri, 28 May 2010 16:39:05 +0000

Google’s Chrome speed tests ad is super cool. The YouTube version has millions of views and rightfully so — it’s impressive to watch the high-speed camera depict the time to load a web page as compared to a potato gun, the speed of sound and lightning.

But Opera, the little browser that could, has a cheeky response. In contrast to Google’s MythBusters-as-art aesthetic, Opera goes a little more Royal Tenenbaums-in-Norway with a video posted to its official YouTube account yesterday. The result of Opera’s own speed test? The browser is also “much faster than a potato.” Love it.

Opera’s “World record speed test”

Google Chrome Speed Tests:

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Opera Buys FastMail to Deliver Email Everywhere

Mathew Ingram — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:05:22 +0000

Opera, the plucky Norwegian web browser that’s a perennial fourth- or fifth-place finisher behind much larger players like Internet Explorer and Firefox, has acquired web-based email provider FastMail.fm for an undisclosed sum. The Australian email company has been around for almost a decade, and has a reputation for being fast and dependable, but has been overshadowed in recent years by services such as Google’s Gmail. Opera, which has its own email service built into its browser, clearly has ambitions to move beyond just browser-based mail to mobile and other platforms. The company said in a release that buying FastMail would enable it to “deliver cross-platform messaging to a wide range of devices, including computers, mobile phones, TVs and gaming consoles.”

FastMail, in explaining why it decided to accept the acquisition deal, told users in a note on its website that: “In an increasingly competitive market, we believe we need to make some big investments to take the next steps forward.” Users’ data will be moved over to Opera unless they cancel their account. FastMail also said that some of its staff will soon be moving to Opera headquarters in Norway, while one of its part-time developers who developed its photo gallery feature and new webmail interface will be working for Opera full time.

Opera recently announced that it has more than 50 million users of its desktop browser software as well as 50 million users of its mobile browser, and recently released an iPhone version — which has been downloaded by millions of users already, although Kevin wondered whether many of them are actually using it. Opera also acquired a mobile ad solutions company called AdMarvel in January for an estimated $23 million. And the company has been working on a version of its browser for interactive televisions, supporting a European standard called “hybrid broadcast broadband TV.”

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user idogcow

iPhone Owners Downloading Opera Mini, But Are They Using It?

Kevin C. Tofel — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:39:04 +0000

Opera today shared a preview of its next “State of the Mobile Web” report, which focuses on Opera Mini for iPhone, the app that — to the surprise of many — was approved by Apple for inclusion in its App Store earlier this month. According to Opera, iPhone users are indeed downloading the app — but are they using it?

For while Apple greenlighted the app, it won’t allow users to set Opera Mini as a default browser. And based on the limited preview numbers provided by Opera, it appears that while Opera Mini is finding its way to iPhones, iPhone users aren’t finding their to the way to the web through Opera Mini.

According to a preview of the report:

The iPhone is currently the No. 3 device used by Opera Mini users worldwide; the other top 20 devices are all Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets.
The iPhone is currently the No. 1 device used by Opera Mini users in the U.S., well ahead of BlackBerry (which previously occupied the top spot).
By mid-April, due to the iPhone launch, the U.S. jumped to No. 5 from No. 8 in the top 10 countries list.
Beyond the top 10 countries, Australia, Korea, Canada, Germany and Japan are other examples of places where the iPhone has become the device of choice for Opera Mini users.

That all sounds good — but is it the result of users finding Opera Mini to be better than Safari, or a reaction to an alternative browser landing on a highly popular phone? Obviously we’ll have to see the full report to answer that question, but Opera does share some additional global information in today’s preview statement by supplying the top 10 handsets of unique users, downloads and page views per user for Opera Mini.

Nowhere is the iPhone mentioned in the Opera Mini global numbers, although I fully expected it would be after reading the iPhone-specific data points. Instead, the global usage numbers are dominated by handsets from Nokia and Sony Ericsson. In fact, two specific Opera statements appear contradictory — how can the iPhone be the No. 3 device “used by Opera Mini users worldwide” and not appear in the top 10 handsets for Opera Mini unique users list? Perhaps it’s that “unique users” qualifier, that in fact only a relatively few iPhone users are accounting for total Opera Mini use on Apple’s handset.

Even stranger to me is that the iPhone is a singular platform as compared to all of the other global handsets mentioned — put another way: a popular device with essentially one model should compete well in a market fractured by so many different handsets. I realize that Nokia has the strongest presence worldwide — the data should and does reflect that. But the iPhone not showing up in the top 10 handsets lends credence to what I thought would happen: iPhone owners may be installing Opera Mini, but for most of them, Safari will still rule the roost.

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Windows Browser Ballot Screen Is Working — Up to a Point

Sebastian Rupley — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:51:36 +0000

Since the start of March, some European versions of Microsoft Windows have been delivered with a so-called “browser ballot screen,” a screen designed to give users a choice of 12 web browsers instead of having Microsoft’s Internet Explorer forced on them. But while it’s already bringing new users to alternative browsers, criticisms of the screen are being leveled, too.

The European Commission’s hope for the screen — which is the result of a settlement between it and Microsoft — was that it would preserve healthy competition among web browsers, and promote choices for users. And there are signs that progress is being made toward reaching those goals: Opera Software says downloads of its browser have tripled since the screen’s introduction. Rolf Assev, chief strategy officer for the Norwegian browser maker, told Reuters that the surge in downloads varies from country to country, with particularly strong upticks seen in Belgium, France, Spain, Poland and the UK.

And Mozilla, maker of the popular open source Firefox browser, says some 50,000 downloads of Firefox can be directly traced to the new ballot screen. That’s not a huge number, though, as Mozilla’s CEO John Lilly has confirmed that Firefox typically gets more than half a million downloads a day in Europe.

So the ballot screen seems to be having some effect, but there are also problems with its execution. Most glaringly, as ZDNet has noted, there are 12 browsers listed in the ballot screen, ranging from well-known names such as Firefox to less popular browsers such as K-Meleon, but it only displays five at a time, as seen here:

Six of the seven browser makers whose offerings aren’t displayed on the default ballot screen view have already produced a petition asking the European Commission to deliver a version that shows all 12 browsers at once. There are also complaints being lodged by makers of browsers not found on the ballot screen at all.

Still, despite varying results for increased downloads of alternative browsers, and some problems with its execution, the ballot screen is likely to increase usage of numerous browsers over time. Thus far, it has only reached a minority of European users. One has to wonder if Microsoft may end up being required to offer U.S.-based users of Windows more choice in browsers, too. That’s probably going to be the focus of the next petition from the alternative browser makers, and the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) has already asked for the ballot screen to be repeated around the world.

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Opera Rides the Mobile Ad Bandwagon With AdMarvel Buy

Colin Gibbs — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:43:24 +0000

Opera Software has joined the mobile advertising crowd, shelling out as much as $23 million to acquire AdMarvel in an effort to create a new way to drive revenues through its highly popular mobile browsers. The Norwegian developer will pay $8 million in cash and up to $15 million more if certain financial targets are met over the next two years. The move comes amid a flurry of M&A activity in the space in recent weeks.

A San Mateo, Calif.-based startup, AdMarvel helps publishers and carriers to source, manage and track advertising across ad networks. The company last year launched an iPhone advertising toolkit designed to enable app developers to integrate ads from ad networks into their applications. AdMarvel was founded in 2006 under the name Frengo and has reportedly raised $8 million in funding.

While much of the recent activity in the mobile ad space has focused on smartphones, Opera’s entry to the market could help boost ad revenues on feature phones. The company has seen tremendous success with Opera Mini, a mobile browser designed primarily to format web content for mass-market handsets. Opera two months ago claimed 41.7 million ~~users downloaded~~ consumers used Opera Mini in November, more than doubling the browser’s user base in a year. Ramping up advertising on those phones through Opera Mini would give the overall mobile ad market a major lift (GigaOM Pro, sub. required).

Image courtesy Flickr user andyket.

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CEO Shuffle at Opera Comes at a Critical Time

Sebastian Rupley — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:39:48 +0000

Jon von Tetzchner

Opera Software has named Lars Boilesen as the company’s new CEO, replacing Jon S. von Tetzchner, who co-founded the Norwegian company in 1995 and has served as its head ever since. Opera will retain von Tetzchner for strategic help, but the shift to his role marks the end of an era for the company.

Long-time Opera CEO von Tetzchner announced the change himself:

“My decision to assume a new role in Opera is based on a lengthy consideration process. As outgoing Chief Executive, I leave confident in the company’s continued leadership in key markets, our strong management team, our ongoing commitment to innovation, and our robust financial foundation.”

Boilesen has held various management, sales and marketing positions at companies including Alcatel-Lucent, Tandberg Data, and Lego and was previously Opera’s chief commercial officer and a member of Opera’s board. He played a key role in positioning Opera as a cross-platform browser.

“We provide browser technology not only to nearly 100 million consumers worldwide, but also to the major players in the industry: Vodafone, T-Mobile, Nintendo, KDDI, SKT, Nokia, Samsung, Toshiba and Sony Ericsson to name but a few,” said Boileson, in a statement. He added that Opera will continue to work with OEMs and industry players to continue to push the adoption of Opera and the Opera Mobile and Mini browsers.

Opera faces more competition than ever in the browser market. Google has recently released beta versions of its Chrome browser for Mac and Linux, solidifying its cross-platform strategy. Mozilla’s Firefox browser is also available for Windows, the Mac and Linux, and many feel that these two open-source browsers are leading browser innovation. Net Applications’ most recent browser market share data shows Chrome in third place — ahead of Apple’s Safari — with 4.6 percent global share. Firefox accounts for 24.6 percent of the market, while Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has 62.7 percent. Opera, meanwhile, has only 2.6 percent share.

Going forward, Mozilla and Google have their eyes squarely set on encouraging healthy ecosystems of extensions for their browsers, and both Opera and Internet Explorer have ground to make up in that area. Opera Mobile is also likely to face competition from Mozilla’s Firefox Mobile browser, now out in a release candidate version. Without a doubt, Opera’s greatest challenges will come from Google’s and Mozilla’s open source competitors.

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The Europe/Microsoft Browser Battle Ends

Sebastian Rupley — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:30:19 +0000

The European Commission is dropping its long-standing antitrust case against Microsoft involving browsers after the company agreed to offer users alternative choices to Internet Explorer, even as its browser market share continues to dip. The announcement was delivered in Brussels by Europe’s competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, who has been very closely involved with the case. As part of its deal with the European Commission, Microsoft will offer a pop-up pane including as many as 11 browsers, including open source offerings Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.

As the Associated Press notes, Kroes compared Microsoft’s longtime practice of placing “the big e” representing Internet Explorer right on the desktop of Windows-based computers, without any other browsers available to users, to bad shelving practices in a store:

“It is as if you went to the supermarket and they only offered you one brand of shampoo on the shelf, and all the other choices are hidden out the back, and not everyone knows about them. What we are saying today is that all the brands should be on the shelf.”

In a statement, Brad Smith, senior VP and general counsel at Microsoft noted who will be affected by the decision:

“The Web browser measures cover the inclusion of Internet Explorer in Windows for users in Europe—specifically the region known as the European Economic Area, which includes 30 nations.”

Microsoft has not expressed any intent to extend its new practices to users in other countries, but it will send a browser choice screen to existing Windows users who are running Internet Explorer as their default browser.

The case arose out of an initial complaint filed by small, Norwegian browser maker Opera Software. Mozilla, which makes the popular Firefox browser, and Google, which is gaining market share with its Chrome browser, had expressed support for changes in Microsoft’s browser practices. Firefox and Chrome are the two browsers most likely to benefit from Europe’s decision today. Firefox is already the most popular browser in some European countries, such as Germany.

Could Microsoft eventually open source Internet Explorer? The idea might help the company compete with Mozilla and Google more effectively, and has been suggested by many people. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said he’s looking at the idea, mentioning the open source WebKit browser engine in particular. Whether Microsoft does go with such a strategy or not, today’s announcement is certain to cause Internet Explorer’s market share to dip further.

Image courtesy of the European Commission.

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Do Opera Mini Stats Tell the Whole Mobile Web Story?

Colin Gibbs — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:29:55 +0000

Opera again showcased the growth of the mobile web with today’s installment of its monthly report of Opera Mini usage, but in a world where web-friendly smartphones are gaining traction its data may be getting stale. While there’s no doubt that Opera Mini has amassed a huge following, it’s unclear how instructive the company’s statistics are when it comes to overall mobile web usage.

Mini is a great alternative for feature phones and other handsets with inferior embedded browsers, but as AdMob pointed out again last month, iPhones and other high-tech smartphones with advanced browsers are driving a huge amount of traffic on the mobile web. Opera is running neck-and-neck with the iPhone in the mobile browser market, according to StatCounter Global Stats.

Rolf Assev, Opera’s chief strategy officer, thinks the Opera data reflects worldwide mobile surfing trends as well as underscores the idea that folks who surf on a wireless gadget visit the same places they do on wireline networks. He told me that while usage of the mobile web is largely driven by high-speed networks, users generally visit the same sites whether they’re using an iPhone, a computer or Opera Mini:

“I think in a way (Opera’s statistics) mirrors overall mobile web usage very well,” Assev said. “This is proving that there is just one web. As long as you can access the Internet, it doesn’t matter which device you are using; you’re just going to the same pages that you would go to on a computer.”

I think that holds true for users in emerging markets, where fixed-line web access is hard to come by and computers are scarce. I’m not convinced it applies to more advanced markets, though. I’m not a regular Opera Mini user, but my mobile web usage varies drastically from my PC usage. I’m very cognizant of which sites are mobile-optimized, which can be effectively transcoded and which are simply too difficult to access on a phone. Mini — like the iPhone, for that matter — addresses a lot of the problems that exist in the world of the mobile web, but there are still many hurdles to overcome before the “one web” concept truly applies.

It’s All About Google

However, as long as we take the results with a grain of salt, there are some interesting data points hidden in this month’s report. Google proved once again that it is the destination of choice for users of the popular mobile browser. Google — or a localized version thereof — ranked in the top 10 most visited sites in Opera Mini’s top 10 international markets in September, and was the most popular site for Mini users in the U.S. and India. Facebook also was popular among Mini users, ranking as the top destination in Great Britain and South Africa and the second-most popular in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Opera Mini continues to build its worldwide audience: The browser claimed more than 35 million users last month, up 11.5 percent from August 2009 and more than 150 percent from the year-ago period. Mini users viewed nearly 15 billion pages last month, Opera claims, marking a 7.2 percent increase over the previous month and a 230 percent increase from September 2008. That momentum is sure to continue as Opera moves aggressively into the U.S. market with its recent distribution deal with AT&T.

I think in a way it mirrors it very well, I think in the us it’s a tendency that people are using high end skmartphoen, also using very much on wifi, but if you look at outside us, in emerging markets, no wifi, very rfe w samrtphones,

It’s very int, they’re using their phone to access exactly the same pages as the computer,

Main reason is that people are accessing the same pages as on the opmuter, this maybe used to be the case in the us, walled garneds until last year like being in an amsument mpark, it’s nice to be disnelyand in one day, people are accesing the same sites as on the compuer, and they come back to the same sites, hometown newspaper, you keep your football team as a bookmark, you use t

Different use cases, the fact is it’s proving the other way around, yes you are surfing the exact same pages, go into the same psages

This is just proving there is just one web, as along as you can access doesn’t matter which device you are suing, you’re going to the same pages,

Wi-fi, it’s a very big use pattern diff whether you have hispeed on the phone or not, people in the us who do not, they are not surfing as much, but as soon as they get highspeed they are surfing more, with opera mini you get ful speed int experience, that’s why we see our users are using browsers so much more for example, it all depends what kind of speed you’re getting, going trough

There are some sites optimized for mobile phones, for people not using mini, not using wifi, they tend ot go to very simple wap pages, but when they have a choice, that’s what iphone and mini

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Opera Mini, Unite and the Future of Mobile Browsers

Colin Gibbs — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:32 +0000

In the serious world of high-tech executives, Jon von Tetzchner stands out as a refreshingly irreverent leader. The Icelandic-born CEO of Opera Software — who in 2005 comically attempted to swim from Norway to the U.S. as a public-relations stunt — preaches the company’s vision of “One Web” that would deliver a full Internet experience to people regardless of whether they access online content with a desktop, a mobile computer or a wireless phone. It’s a goal Opera continues to work toward with its mobile and PC browsers and with Opera Unite, a new technology that aims to turn PCs — and, eventually, cell phones — into servers that let users share content with others via the browser.

In the edited interview below, Tetzchner, a speaker at this week’s Mobilize 09 in San Francisco, offers his thoughts via e-mail on the U.S. mobile market, the evolution of phone browsers, and the effect app stores will have on the space.

Colin Gibbs: Opera Mini has gained astounding traction worldwide, surpassing 25 million downloads via GetJar alone, but it seems most of that uptake is coming from markets outside North America. How is Opera Mini faring in the U.S., and what kind of movement can we expect in the next year?

Jon von Tetzchner: Opera Mini is doing quite well in the U.S. — the U.S. is on the top 10 list for countries using Opera Mini. However, it is also visible that Opera Mini is not reaching as wide in the U.S. as in other countries. As an example, the top 10 phone list is dominated by RIM. The reason for this is that a data plan is needed in the U.S. to use data services (and not in other countries to the same extent, as a limited data plan is included by default). I believe Opera Mini will become a very popular player in the year to come, directly and through our partners such as Sprint and Virgin Mobile.

Gibbs: Opera Mini has effectively turned millions of feature phones into web-friendly devices, but how will the browser evolve in relation to the more powerful Opera Mobile as smartphone usage continues to ramp up?

Tetzchner: Both browsers will continue to get more powerful, and both are able to run on smartphones and feature phones. Opera Mini is getting a lot of traction, and we believe it will continue to do so. Opera Mobile has been getting Turbo, and that makes Opera Mobile also work very well on limited networks. Users and our partners will have two good choices to choose between.

Gibbs: Webkit continues to gain traction on smartphones and will surely increase its momentum in the wake of RIM’s acquisition of Torch Mobile. Do you see Webkit as a competitor or as a complementary solution, and what do you believe are Opera’s differentiators?

Tetzchner: The mobile market used to have a lot of browsers — a lot of WAP browsers — but these are now increasingly being replaced by Opera and sometimes a Webkit-based browser. I think it is clear that the market wants a choice in browsers. There is clearly room for more than one, and we will be making sure that we continue to provide innovation faster in the market.

Gibbs: What role do you see mobile playing in Opera Unite? What kind of user experience do you envision?

Tetzchner: I do believe Opera Unite will play a major role in mobile and in general. It is only natural that every device has the capability to both consume and serve data and services. On the mobile, a typical example of a Unite service would be the Photo Sharing service. Many photos on mobile phones never leave it. Opera Unite opens up to easy sharing of photos with your friends, without having to upload them or send them over MMS. Convenience is the key here, as always.

Gibbs: How do you plan to lure developers to Opera Unite given all the new mobile platforms available to build on?

Tetzchner: The web is the platform of choice in the world today. Nothing comes close. Web developers are discovering more and more that they can make some great apps using web technology, and as part of that, widgets are taking off. Opera Unite services are basically widgets. Any widgets developer (read: web designer) can easily make an Opera Unite service. Any Unite service will work with any Unite-enabled Opera browser and can be accessed with any modern browser. That is some serious reach.

Gibbs: How will the ever-increasing number of app stores coming to market affect Opera, and how do you plan to exploit the new distribution channels?

Tetzchner: As you mention, these stores can be a distribution channel for Opera. In addition to that, we are enabling stores by providing Opera with Widgets as a way to run apps and sometimes even helping make the stores.

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On Mobiles, There's No Stopping Webkit

Om Malik — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:45:59 +0000

There are a lot of brave souls out there making mobile browsers, hoping to gain traction with the phone makers. But most of them are fighting a losing battle, for the mobile browser war is increasingly being fought between two camps — the Webkit-based browsers camp, which includes Safari on the iPhone, the Google Android Browser, the Palm browser and the Nokia browser; and the Opera camp.

Today Research in Motion bought Touch Mobile, a Toronto-based company developing a Webkit-based mobile browser. Maybe it’s time for Microsoft to throw in the towel and officially get on the Webkit bandwagon as well. With the BlackBerry still the reigning champion of the smartphone business, at least in North America, the Webkit is about to get a big boost. Even Mozilla’s Firefox Mobile has an uphill climb ahead, though one can’t blame them for trying. Many mobile industry insiders believe that the browser is one of the biggest drivers of the mobile Internet boom.

Frankly, I can’t wait for my BlackBerry Tour to get some browser smarts and become more useful than its current role of just a solid messaging device.

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