Opera Mobile

Ditto.

Stop the talking and give us the beta!

Oh.. no pressure. Take your time..

I realize Opera's had some bad experiences committing release dates, like with the Opera Mobile 9 page announcing that the product would be released soon, in mid '07 and having to deal with all that pent-up expectation. So I get that Opera can't give us a concrete written-in-stone release date. Very few companies do that, WIR and all that.

My point is that there has to be a balance between not telling at all and giving exact release dates. Not giving end users a realistic, even if a little ambiguous timeframe, leads to unrealistic expectations: many many people believe that the new release is just around the corner and they'll get it in a couple of days or weeks.

Can't you give us a vague idea based on how the work's been going on, like say by May or July or something?

Sidfire writes:

i agree 110% to what Qabir had to say ! I can only hope an Opera respresentative will respond to this.

Orbsitron writes:

It would be great to get a timeframe to set our expectations. Are we hanging in there for another month? Six months? Etc.

Either way, I'm looking forward to checking out the beta when it is available.

There's a beta of Opera Mini coming soon so they won't run this at the same time.

There's a beta of Opera Mini coming soon so they won't run this at the same time.

(...)wait another couple of weeks

Whee Can you say anything about whether there'll be a UIQ3 version?

Anonymous writes:

Any reason why the mobile team doesn't release regular snapshot builds like the desktop team? (Also, doesn't the desktop team do daily or weekly builds too?) I don't think it would be that big of a hassle to install builds regularly since it isn't that hard to back up and restore a Windows Mobile device. I bet there's a lot of people out there who would install these builds and test em for you.

thanks we will get alpha soon

The mobile online world hasn't yet reached enough people that it's worth putting out weekly or daily builds of a browser. While the majority of people are paying for data it's just too much hassle for them.

fleinn, http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2008/27/c7571.html

Yeah. I know. But that's a licensed version. What no one, either UIQ, SE, or Opera can seem to give a good answer to, is whether it's going to be possible to ever install Opera 9.5 legally on any UIQ3.0 unit. And I'm simply taking the evasive or non- existent answers as meaning: [flowers] you, buy the new unit if you want the new piece of software (with the same bugs as before, because we like the old bugs, præhæhæh!), and to hell with the entire "UIQ endavours to create a platform for software- developers to reach a wider audience" shit when it suits us, because we like to piss off the end- users. And there's just nothing you can do about it, is it! HAHAHAHAHA!.

So first of all that means - if UIQ owns the test- builds, and all versions of Opera. And so have the only legal means to deploy the builds - then we're not going to see a public beta for UIQ3.0, nor the final build. Because SE and Motorola don't want to "give" away things for "free", if they can keep it until it's old and dated, and then use it to sell old and outdated handsets in the future. Because they're too lazy and greedy to actually invest in something, apart from attempts to maintain their market- control over their amazing 10% and falling on the smart- phone market. And... then we're not going to see anything else than the test- build on a video until the UIQ3.3 units appear next year. (At which point I will not buy one on principle.)

Second, that means Opera loses a lot of customers now who would be willing to buy the browser. They will also lose exposure because of SE policies and UIQ cowardice. And, well, I suppose I think that should motivate Opera to for example either abandon development for UIQ altogether, until a new handset- maker shows up (never). Or perhaps have a really serious talk with some of the [nice people] over at UIQ. Or else think more carefully about committing to licensed deals like this in the future.

(sorry about the long post..)

Not gonna happen, don't worry. The deals where the browsers get put onto handsets just fund Opera to keep improving it. They're not gonna stop current UIQ owners from buying it without buying a brand new phone around it else they'd lose out.

I think the leaked version has came out before 1 month but there is no beta ....till now...

Where's it say there's a beta?

If they are short of developers, why aren't they at the "Over the Air Festival" in London, would be a good place to meet developers. Google and Microsoft are there, so why not Opera?

And why no details of the series 60 version?

fleinn, can't one just upgrade from UIQ 3.1 to UIQ 3.3, rather than buying a new phone ?

Furie, OP says *beta* comming in a couple of weeks

That's what I said. '..why not flood the market with modern- looking UIQ devices, develop firmware- elements for the UIQ phones that can be easily ported between versions and models, and save development costs, bugfixing, while maintaining a push for actually improving in real terms (unlike what's there now, which is the same as two years ago, minus a couple of checks for the tennis- stars).'.. and so on. But obviously that wouldn't work for SE, since they just don't have the skill or the vision to do anything great on the smartphone- market. Even when working on a platform like UIQ.

Anyway.. So it's up to Sony Ericsson and UIQ higher- ups. But anything useful turning up on UIQ will probably be in spite of whatever they're going to do in the next couple of years, imo.

Oh, they changed it from when I read it. Cheers for the pointer dude.

flein, i don´t know if SE/UIQ will "give" opera 9.5 to users of old and not so old UIQ3 phones, but i am sure we will be able to test the beta, and buy it after

I mean...opera mobile 9.5 is openly being showed running on a SE P1i...hell, its is even on this blog banner! It would be a cruel joke if it didn´t happen

waiting ..........................

[i]Moderator edit: English please.[/i]

Will it support n70.Opera 8.65 hang sometime.Y?

It's been over a couple of weeks now, are you sure you didn't mean a couple months? :-(

yeah, what gives???

But it hasn't been two weeks since the "couple of weeks" edit - that would be on the 17th...

Ooh.. exciting...

Jolly good, i look forward to thursday with reserved anticipation.

Pleeeeeeeeeaasse? I want it! If you ask me, 9.405 was public beta material. But it should already be much better by now. Please gives us an update!

tomorow???????????

bring it on

Easy now tigers.. *laughs*, I only suggested that the 17th would be the date after which one could legitimately hassle Opera for it being longer than "a couple of weeks"...

From the state of most marriages these days "a couple" could be any number.

Anonymous writes:

It's good to hear that Opera Mobile 9.5 is going to release tomorrow, or was that two-more-row weeks?-)

17th ?????....

Today?
I have a SE P1i, should it being a beta-version out for it today? (UIQ)

Ay Caramba! So this is how internet rumours start.. if you re-read my responses above carefully, I'm merely saying that the 'couple of weeks' mentioned in the blog edit are up today...

Perhaps it was a mistake to put the '17th' in red..

lol and hey garion mate.. cant wait wait cant.. hoping its the weekend.. hoping its this weekend..this weekend..this . . lol

Yeah! That'd be great sid mate... for everyone but garion... 'cos garion has an N70, and methinks s60v2 phones aren't going to be supported...

HRH writes:

Is there any version 0f opera 9.5 for w950 uiq3?:awww:

Anonymous writes:

I want to buy opera mobile, if you buy version 8.65 will you be able to upgrade for free to 9.xx?

This hasn't been officially announced yet. That's why I'm waiting.

So we can expect opera mobile 9.5 beta before 10 days counting from today .....countdown starts 10....

9....

8

7

6,5,4,3,2,1.... lol.. i was hoping for this weekend lol or if not this coming tuesday..... ( the opera desktop team say they are almost ready for the beta 2 release of 9.50 windows desktop version..hint hint??)

In the long run, It'll hardly matter at all whether the Opera mobile release date moves up or down a couple of weeks or even a month or two. Even the people so frustrated and anxious about the new release wouldn't care once the app gets released. They'd be content and happy for a number of days, maybe a week or two, while the novelty and 'newness' of the 9.5 release remains. Then they'd realize that, just like any previous release of Mobile, and in fact, any other product ever produced, 9.5 also has room for improvement. Before too long, they'd feel frustrated and anxious about the next release.

This release of mobile should be very important to Opera. It'll have to fend off some serious competition, what with firefox mobile and skyfire slated for a release this year. Unlike the desktop arena, Opera's the big encumbent player in the full-featured mobile browser market, having the most market share, outreach, brand recognition and all. So all newcomers would be gunning for it, trying to outdo it's features and get it's user base. It could be very costly for Opera to make big mistakes and drop the ball. The mobile market is comparatively small, but it's growing rapidly and will be very significent in the future. If I were Opera, I'd take my time and get things right.

If I were an end user feeling impatient with all the time this is taking, I'd take a good look at the cost and consequences of getting this attached to things that only matter in the short run, choosing them over my calmness and sanity of mind. Living a life with this pervasive pattern of always looking, longing, and feeling anxious over the next shiny thing that I'd like to get rightnow but can't, doesn't feel very healthy, satisfying, or right to me.

Whew, this turned out to be rather long. I typed this on my N80 phone, while trying out the new opera mini beta.

well said Qasibr, but if Opera would have announced about opera mobile 9.5 when it is actually going to be released then that would have made a whole lot of difference dont you think? well.. if not there could be some sort of daily updates on the development front to end users.. if not daily but atleast once in two days..just like the desktop team blogs.. if opera mobile blogs were like that then that would have been great ..