14 DAY TRIAL // Opera is trying to get ahead in the battle of the mobile web browsers and has announced a new partnership with seven smartphone and tablet manufacturers in India.
Opera Software wants to ensure that its Opera Mini browser comes pre-installed on a large number of devices running Android.
According to the deal, all devices built by Celkon, Karbonn, Lava and Intex will have the Opera web browser installed straight out of the box.
Fly, Zen and tablet manufacturers HCL ME have confirmed that the app will be pre-installed on a select number of Android devices.
Since not all users touch the Play store and simply rely on those apps that come installed with the device, the move is one that could pay off for the Norwegian company.
As The Next Web remarks, this is one of the main reasons why Safari continues to have such a large userbase on iOS and why Internet Explorer still dominates Windows-based laptops and desktops.
“We are extremely pleased to work with these Indian mobile OEMs who have chosen Opera Mini for their devices based on Android, a very promising mobile OS for smartphones,” Opera Software CEO Lars Boilesen says in a statement.
He also mentions that users could enjoy a seamless browsing experience and encourages newbies to get on board the web express by offering customers affordable Android devices and smart applications that can make everything easier.
Opera’s move isn’t random. They claim that the mobile browser is “the most widely used” app in its category in India, while patting itself on the back for its advanced server compression technology.
Since the web browser is available for all major mobile operating systems, such as Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Phone, this is quite plausible.
Opera seems to stay in the news lately. Only last week, the company filed a lawsuit against a former employee who allegedly gave away trade secrets to Mozilla, the company behind Firefox browser.