Opera Mobile Outduels iPhone’s Safari in May

The Opera Mobile browser has overtaken the iPhone’s Safari browser to become the world’s number-one Web-surfing platform for mobile phones, according to StatCounter. The Dublin-based Web metrics firm, which records more than 10 billion page loads per month, said Opera held a 24.6 percent share of the global market in May compared to the iPhone’s 22.3 percent share.

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Given all the media hoopla surrounding Apple’s iPhone, Opera’s leading position might seem surprising. But Opera Software Chief Strategy Officer Rolf Assev notes that smartphone platforms represent just 10 percent of the total global mobile-device market.

“The key for us is having a cross-browser platform that is able to work on all sorts of different devices,” Assev said. “Opera’s strategy is focused [on] lower-end, cheaper phones.”

A Turbocharged Experience

So far, Opera’s mobile strategy is helping the company stay neck and neck with Apple in the global mobile-browser race. And Assev is confident that Opera will continue to do well.

“We have 25 million active users who have downloaded the Opera browser onto their phones,” Assev said. “And every day there are about 200,000 who download the Opera Mini — the Java client which gets the browser onto almost all of the phones.”

Opera is gaining mobile market buoyancy because it has taken the lead in incorporating compression technology into all its browser products, Assev noted. With Opera’s turbo technology behind the browser, the content gets massaged at the server before being sent over to the client, reducing the bandwidth by eight or nine times by the time it arrives on the device.

“This speeds up the user experience by three or four times, making it totally different from the normal experience on mobile phones,” Assev said. “Other browser makers are trying this out, but none have come as far as us.”

Another reason why Opera is gaining market share, noted Assev, is because mobile network operators see the advantages of offering one browser experience across all their different devices. “In reality, we are trying to be the operators’ best friend by working directly with them,” Assev said.

International mobile giants such as Vodafone and T-Mobile, together with South Korea’s largest mobile network operator, SK Telecom, are already Opera converts. “We are distributing through operators, where they are licensing the technology from us,” Assev noted.

Overseas Opportunities

Assev would like to see Opera running on the iPhone, but Apple currently prohibits the use of other browsers on its handset. “We had started to port it, but due to [the] fact [that] we have not been allowed entry, we have not finished the job,” Assev said. “But we have made our product available for Android phones.”

Assev also thinks Opera’s mobile market share would be considerably greater if statisticians were to exclude Wi-Fi connections from their counts. “Many users may normally be surfing through Wi-Fi and not through the mobile networks,” he said.

StatCounter does not currently break down its reports this way, but company founder and CEO Aodhan Cullen thought it was “an interesting idea” of something to perhaps try in the future. On the other hand, Cullen pointed out that when Apple’s Wi-Fi-enabled iPod touch is included in the mix, then Apple’s handheld devices actually held onto the mobile-browser lead in May — with the iPod touch alone grabbing a 14.9 percent share of the market.

Cullen also noted that Opera’s mobile-browser uptake is stronger internationally than it is in the United States. “It has a very large share in Europe, but has not taken the lead in the U.S.,” he said.

Still, Opera thinks many of the biggest growth opportunities are overseas, where low-cost phones still rule. “In India they had 12 million new mobile subscribers in just the past month alone,” Assev said. “Now that’s a market where we want to be.”