14 DAY TRIAL // GetJar, the popular third-party mobile applications portal, announced recently that the Opera Mini browser has been removed from their list of available software.
The company banned the Opera Mini browser from their multi-platform application stores due to the fact that it comes with its own application storefront now.
“Due to violations of our T&C’s Opera Mini has been banned from GetJar. Download Bolt, UCweb, Dolphin, Layar or Sqauce and others as needed,” GetJar announced via Twitter.
In another tweet, the company explained what determined it to take this decision: “[Opera] placed an app store in their browser. one thing we can’t do is promote competing app stores.”
Recently, Opera announced the launch of its own app store for mobile devices, called Opera Mobile Store, which is available for users of handsets running under BlackBerry, Java, Android, or Symbian.
Moreover, the company announced that its two popular mobile browsers, namely Opera Mini and Opera Mobile, would feature a direct link to the storefront from their Speed Dial pages.
Apparently, this was the reason for which GetJar considered that the Opera Mini application violated its terms and conditions, which resulted on the software being banned from their app store.
Opera Mini is the most popular mobile browser in the world, with tens of millions of people using it for accessing the Internet on their mobile phones each month.
The browser is currently available for download via Opera's own website, as well as via other third party sites, Softpedia included.
Apparently, the guys over at Techcrunch already managed to to get in touch with Opera on the matter, and received the following response:
As we have worked closely with GetJar for a number of years we would like to find a solution to still be part of their offering.
Opera Mini has been one of the most popular downloads in GetJar’s system historically, so we also believe this means that their users are missing out on a popular app. Appia says it offers 140,000 free and paid apps, which is roughly the same amount of apps and games GetJar claims it offers.
We are in dialogue with GetJar about the process going forward. At this stage we can not confirm anything.
It remains to be seen whether GetJar would reconsider its approach on Opera Mini or not. In the meantime, those who would like to download the browsers would find it available on Softpedia for various mobile platforms out there:
Opera Mini for BlackBerry 5.1.22303
Opera Mini for Palm OS 4.2.14912