Fat lady not singing on the iPhone

By Davey Winder
Friday, 31 October 2008 16:52

Market

Once upon a time the big threat to Internet Explorer came in the shape of an alternative browser that wasn't called Firefox. Mozilla effectively squashed Opera out of the serious desktop browser contenders marketplace, and now it looks like Apple is doing the same when it comes to the iPhone.

Opera once tried to get the European Commission to prevent Microsoft from abusing its dominant position by tying Internet Explorer to Windows, and hindering interoperability by not following accepted Web standards.

This stank of desperation, to be honest, coming as Opera found itself no longer the great alternative browser. That position had been filled by Firefox, which remains firmly in the job.

Which left Opera looking elsewhere for market share, and doing so quite successfully it has to be said. There's the Opera browser for the Nintendo Wii, for example, complete with Flash support and the ability to play web games.

But most of all there is Opera Mini, the web browser designed specifically for mobile phone and smartphone use which reformats web content to fit the small screen. Opera has managed to carve itself quite a business, quite a Mini revenue stream.

It does this by charging handset manufacturers a small license fee to run the software on their phones, typically anything up to one US dollar although often much less. Apple, it has to be said, has not expressed an interest it would seem.

So Opera thought it would sell the software directly to the iPhone user base via the medium of the App Store, after all that is what it is for, right? Apparently not, although pints of virtual beer are just fine.

According to Opera CEO Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner Apple has blocked the Opera Mini web browser application from appearing at the App Store, and so in effect banned it from iPhone use.

So what exactly is the problem? Find out on page 2...

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