I work in the QA Services and Documentation department at Opera, and I try to stay updated on everything that happens in our user communities. Even though I work for Opera Software, the opinions stated herein do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
A couple of days ago, HTC revealed their new "iPhone killer", the HTC Touch Diamond. The phone looks extremely promising, and I'm actually considering a purchase if they can manage to work out the kinks from the demo version (it seems slow at times). Better yet, the phone uses the new Opera Mobile 9.5 for a "better internet experience".
Opera Dragonfly is out, as most people probably know by now. If not, check out the Opera Dragonfly blog for the juicy details. To start using it, just go get Opera 9.5 Beta 2, then go to the "Tools > Advanced > Developer Tools" menu.
According to a recent report from ABI Research, the mobile browser market is set to really explode in the coming years, which is something Opera has known for years. But the report reveals an interesting detail on the number of Web-enabled phones (emphasis mine):
ABI Research sees this segment of the mobile browser market accounting for the vast majority of growth over the next five years, as the open-Internet browser (OIB) segment for mobile grows from 76 million in 2007 to nearly 700 million browsers delivered in 2013.
A Norwegian analyst made the connection, and pointed out that Opera apparently has a market share of 54% in this segment. According to our fourth quarter presentation, Opera shipped on a total of 40.8 million handsets in 2007, and the analyst states that this does not include Opera Mini.
If these numbers are correct, then Opera is currently the dominant mobile browser, by far. And with the incredible growth potential, it is hardly strange that more and more companies are jumping on the bandwagon.
How did Norway come to vote yes to Microsoft's OOXML format? Not only did the vast majority attending the meeting vote against the proposed standard, but the people who let it through admitted that it was a broken standard which would need fixing later.
After their failed Minimo mobile browser project, they are now ready to rinse and repeat. But not without commenting on the competition, of course. Or the lack of it, if Mozilla is to be believed. Provided, of course, that the journalist has not taken liberties when "translating" Lilly's answers.
Anne posts in his blog that internal builds of Opera that are intended for some post-Kestrel release are already at 98/100 of the Acid3 test. You won't have to take his word for it either, as we are apparently planning a public build to demonstrate this.
So yes, a lot of things are going on behind the scenes. While Kestrel might be the "latest and greatest" public version, we have people working on the future of Opera as well. And if you like the various improvements in Kestrel I think you'll be pleased by the version after Kestrel as well.
While this blog is mainly about the Opera browser and related things, I've decided to write down a brief report on the event I attended today.
On February 10 this year (the birthday of Lisa McPherson, alleged victim of the Church of Scientology), thousands of people across the world gathered to protest against the Church of Scientology. The protest was arranged after a group called "Anonymous" had pledged to destroy what they consider to be nothing but an evil cult. Long story short, the protest was such a smashing success that another one was quickly set up.
This is a great day for open standards. Microsoft has changed its mind regarding the default mode in IE8.
And while this is a huge win for the internet community, it is also a vindication for an small browser company in Norway, which, at times, faced harsh criticism for getting the authorities involved in order to enforce open Web standards.
It looks like Microsoft has changed its mind regarding standards in IE8:
We've decided that IE8 will, by default, interpret web content in the most standards compliant way it can. This decision is a change from what we've posted previously.
This clearly shows how important it is to keep up the pressure on Microsoft to finally deliver on its promises.
Some may be wondering if this changes anything about Opera's antitrust complaint, but the bottom line is that the massive focus on open standards lately might be bearing fruit. If Microsoft does deliver a browser which is standards compliant by default, this is great news indeed! And at least now, we will have the EU keeping an eye on Microsoft, and giving it real incentive to follow up its promises for once.
Today, Opera's financial results for the fourth quarter of 2007 were announced. For those of you who just want the bottom line, here it is: Opera financially healthy. It is profitable, with significant growth in all business areas, and continued (and even accelerated) growth is expected. The future is looking so bright the company might have to invest in shades for all of its employees.
"Yahoo! has elected not to continue its mobile search partnership with Opera at this time.
That Yahoo! claims that it was they who chose to end the partnership is interesting in light of Google's comments about how their mobile search revenue is "growing above expectations".
Still, it is nice to see that Yahoo! will keep supporting and working with Opera:
Consumers with Opera browsers will continue to have access to Yahoo! oneSearch, and as long-standing partners, Opera and Yahoo! will continue to work together.
Opera is definitely becoming a force to be reckoned with in the mobile market, and we are seeing a nice growth in our user base on the desktop as well.
Microsoft's mantra for IE8 basically being IE7 (or not using the new standards compliant mode) by default is "don't break the Web". It is interesting, then, that Microsoft does exactly that with the new useragent string for IE8.
The Opera Mobile team has finally set up its own blog! Like the desktop team and Opera Mini blogs, you can subscribe if you want to stay up to date on what's going on with Opera. Check it out here:
In his blog, Jeffrey Zeldman defends version targeting. As most people probably know by now, there is a proposal out there which involves IE8 basically requiring that you opt-in to its standards compliance. Needless to say, most people think this is areally, reallybadidea. Apart from Zeldman's attempt at dismissing criticism as "ingrained dislike of Microsoft", something else really caught my eye.
