Opera Planning iPhone Safari Alternative, But Will Apple Give The Nod?

Mini Iphone

Opera Software (OSL: OPERA), which has carved out a healthy market share with its Opera mobile browsers, wants to get in on the iPhone now. The developer today said that it now has a version of its free Opera Mini mobile Internet browser to work on Apple’s handset. It plans to reveal the software next week during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

But will Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) allow the browser to run on its devices? Opera has not yet submitted the software to Apple for approval on the App Store. But ZDNet points out that Apple does not allow third party applications that replicate core iPhone functionality, including the Safari browser. Worth pointing out though that there are other web browsers in the App Store already, such as the Mercury web browser and the Oceanus browser. In its news release today, Opera said the software is not publicly available yet.

According to StatCounter, Norway-based Opera has the largest market share among mobile browsers, at 25 percent. iPhones running Safari have a 22 percent share of the market, ranking it number two behind Opera.

Opera took the opportunity for all the attention it will be getting around this iPhone announcement to also note it will be launching other products during the show. These include new versions of its full Opera Mobile browser for Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android devices; Opera Mini 5 running on a “variety of handsets and platforms”; and a widget manager for Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 handsets.

Yesterday, Opera announced that Huawei would be pre-installing Opera’s browser on its handsets as it pushes further into the mobile device market.

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