Opera Mobile

The first beta of Opera Mobile 9.5 is finally available for you to download. This will be the first in a series of betas for Opera Mobile 9.5. It is designed for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 phones with touchscreens.

The market has undergone a series of dramatic changes since our last major Opera Mobile upgrade. Apple entered the mobile browser market with Safari on the iPhone. Mozilla announced it will release a version of Firefox Mobile later this year and many other players are releasing browsers targeted for smartphones.

We have some fierce competition, but we are determined to keep Opera Mobile as the standard in Web browsing on smartphones. To achieve this, we need your help more than ever. Please file bugs and give us feedback in the forums and even feature requests. Our development team is active on the My Opera forums and will answer questions and do their best to help you out as you put the beta through its paces.

As I write this, I've just left for a much-needed vacation. I expect a long list of bugs and feature-requests to be waiting for me when I get back. After I return, we'll get back to our regular programming with updates on the roadmap and subsequent betas.

Happy bug-hunting!


Edit: Head over to dev.opera.com to read more about the browser from a developer angle or to find out how to use Dragonfly with this beta.

Edit2: This beta will only work on touchscreen-based windows mobile devices. We are planning to add compatibility for non-touchscreen phones in the future.

Edit3: Main testing has been done on English HTC devices (Touch Diamond, Touch Pro, Touch, Touch Dual, Touch Cruise, TyTN and Wizard) and Samsung i900.

After we announced last week that the first beta was expected on July 15th, many of you asked if we would offer a Symbian version. We will offer a Symbian version of Opera Mobile, but you will have to wait a while. We do not yet know when the Symbian version will be ready because development and quality assurance on mobile devices is time consuming. In the meantime Opera Mini is a great alternative for Symbian users. On July 15th, we'll release that first beta for Windows Mobile. Then we need your feedback and ideas to help us improve the browser.

One of the reasons I like working at Opera is that we've always supported a number of platforms. One of the slides from our last quarterly presentation shows 20+ supported operating systems. It's a challenge for a growing company, even with the engineering talent we're fortunate to have. But supporting a variety of platforms is part of our DNA. It's the foundation upon which Opera is built. We believe it's the right thing to do because more people can get the Web where they are, on their terms, on their device. I think that's a noble cause, but it takes time to do it right.

We have a unwavering focus on the craft and quality of our browser. That's the main reason many of you choose Opera. We will never compromise that.

In the meantime, while you're waiting for the first beta of Opera Mobile 9.5, here's a list of some of the official Opera blogs:

http://my.opera.com/operamini/
http://my.opera.com/dragonfly
http://my.opera.com/core/blog/
http://my.opera.com/operaqa/blog/
http://my.opera.com/WebApplications/blog/
http://my.opera.com/macteam/blog/
http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/

Have a great week, and rest assured that our engineers are working hard to give you a great browser next week..

We know that you're waiting for the upcoming beta of Opera Mobile v9.5, and we're sorry to keep you waiting. A browser is a complex piece of software and it takes time to put it together. Believe me when I say that we're just as eager as you to get this browser ready and out the door, but we want it to work properly before we let you play with it.

In the meantime, if you know any talented developers, don't hesitate to send them our way.

EDIT: Don't worry guys! This is a minor delay.. we had hoped to have the beta released by now, but you will have to wait another couple of weeks (not months).

Cnet TV made a video of the upcoming Opera Mobile v9.5. Check it out!

Daniel Goldman over at Opera Watch just answered a question many of you have asked: "Where did Opera Mobile v9.0 go?"

Well, here's the answer:
"The Opera Mobile browser will include the same rendering engine, Presto, as the Opera 9.5 desktop browser. In addition, the Opera SDK (Software Development Kit) that is used for embedded devices also uses the latest Presto rendering engine."

We basically skipped v9.0 and went right for v9.5. This will make it easier for web developers to figure out what standards support we offer across our browser products.