Even though some of us here are true fans of the Opera web browser, and even though this report might catch Apple’s eye and see Opera for Mac subsequently pulled from the Mac App Store, we must report that Apple seems to have gone against its own guidelines when approving the app.
Opera Software was proud to announce this week that Apple had approved the Opera desktop web browser in the Mac App Store.
The approval marked the addition of the Mac App Store’s first non-native web browser, as Opera is not based on the WebKit page rendering engine shared by the likes of Safari and Google Chrome.
The company’s VP of Desktop Products even joked about the fact that Apple gave it a 17+ rating.
"I'm very concerned," said Jan Standal, VP of Desktop Products for Opera Software.
"Seventeen is very young, and I am not sure if, at that age, people are ready to use such an application. It's very fast, you know, and it has a lot of features. I think the download requirement should be at least 18."
If Apple doesn’t take this joke too personally, it will most certainly be tempted to kick Opera out of the Mac App Store for the sole fact that features a built-in BitTorrent client.
As TUAW points out, Apple previously rejected BitTorrent apps citing that "this category of applications is often used for the purpose of infringing third-party rights."
It will be interesting to see whether Apple decides to pull Opera from its Mac App Store, based on this finding.
The company could face yet another antitrust suit over such a move, but it wouldn’t be the first time Apple triumphed while staying true to its own App Store Review Guidelines.
If it does get rejected, Opera might also agree to develop a version lacking the BitTorrent functionality, although this is the least likely scenario.
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