{"id":555,"date":"2008-05-13T22:31:48","date_gmt":"2008-05-14T05:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wapreview.com\/?p=555"},"modified":"2020-09-28T19:34:37","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T02:34:37","slug":"opera-mini-coming-to-verizon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wapreview.com\/555\/","title":{"rendered":"Opera Mini Coming to Verizon?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Opera\"VerizonOpera Mini 4.1 was released today. While I was poking around on OperaMini.com<\/a> looking for a feature list and some cool imagagry for a post about the release I noticed something interesting. The OperaMini.com homepage has this statement:<\/p>\n

“The service is not available to Verizon Wireless subscribers (other than BlackBerry users) yet. Please subscribe<\/a> for an email notification when we have a version available for Verizon customers. Thanks for your patience!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not available “yet”. <\/strong>Does that imply that it will be soon?. That would make Verizon’s estimated 70 milion subscribers pretty happy. Curently Verizon’s customers, unless they have a Blackberry, Windows Mobile phone or the LG Voyager are stuck with the circa 2002 Openwave 6.1 browser. It was a fine browser in its day but now it’s severely dated with a page size limit of about 20 KB, no JavaScript and limited CSS support.<\/p>\n

There aren’t any alternate browsers available for Verizon phones either. Verizon doesn’t install a Java ME runtime, using Qualcom’s BREW platform application instead. There are <\/strong>a few after market BREW browsers, Novarra has one called nWeb <\/em>and Opera has developed an Opera Mini BREW version<\/a>. The problem is that BREW is a locked down, carrier centric, anti-user platform. BREW content carries DRM locking it to a specific handset. The only way for a user to install a BREW game or application is from the carrier’s portal. So even though there is a BREW version of Opera Mini there is no way a user can get it on their phone unless Verizon makes it available through their “Get It Now” portal.<\/p>\n

It would make sense for Verizon to offer Opera Mini to their customers. The iPhone has made mobile full web browsing fashionable and the trend is toward full web browsers on all phones. ATT and T-Mobile already have feature phones with Opera Mobile and NetFront. Verizon needs an affordable full web browser that can run on the BREW platform in order to remain competitive. There aren’t many choices. Verizon’s Voyager<\/a> iPhone clone comes with a pretty good Teleca full web browser but Teleca has gotten out of the mobile browser business. I used nWeb on Amp’d<\/a> quite a bit and it was vastly inferior to Opera Mini, slow, no CSS support and many pages failed to load.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Opera Mini probably won’t be free for Verizon customers. There are few if any free BREW applications. Qualcom and Verizon both charge developers steep certification fees before even allowing an app on the portal and than take a big chunk of an app’s price as a sales commission. Of course, Verizon could give Opera Mini away but that would be a break from their current model of not having any free downloadable content. Opera Mini is certainly worth paying for, let’s hope Verizon makes it available soon for a small one time fee and not on one of those horrid pay monthly subscription deals.<\/p>\n

Oh, and about the release of Opera Mini for Java ME. It’s definitely worth downloading<\/p>\n

April’s Version 4.1 Beta included some neat features:<\/p>\n