14 DAY TRIAL // Anyone surprised? Didn’t think so. Apple is showing no intention of granting Opera Mini access into its elusive iTunes App Store, something that shouldn’t take anyone by storm, especially those watching the company’s moves up close. While there is an offset chance Apple will eventually prove us wrong (we’re really not holding our breath for its approval anymore), it’s really starting to look like Opera’s mobile web browser is not getting accepted by Apple.
The iPhone maker, as avid Softpedia readers should know, develops its own web browser. We’ve noted on numerous occasions that Apple may not want competition by approving a potentially more powerful web-browsing application than its own, mobile Safari.
When it officially introduced Opera Mini for iPhone on March 23, Opera Software said that, “Early reviews of Opera Mini for iPhone praised the sheer browsing speed, powering through Web pages up to six times faster than Safari.” The company explained in a press release that, “Due to server-side rendering, Opera Mini compresses data by up to 90 percent before sending it to the phone, resulting in rapid page loading and more Web per MB for the end user.” This clearly didn’t fail to echo with Cupertino.
The app offers a number of features that Apple’s mobile Safari doesn’t, including tabs and a function for searching terms within the text displayed on a page – a find-in-page feature. Opera users also have a few more advantages, such as the Opera Link feature, which keeps all their bookmarks, browsing history and notes in sync, across all their supported systems. Speed Dial is also a key strong point of Opera Mini. The feature allows for up to nine favorite websites to be visually bookmarked, making them easily accessible all the time. Similar functionality can be found in Apple’s Safari, but only with the desktop version of the application.
Any speculation will be dismissed rapidly once Apple sends Opera Software an email justifying the rejection. Softpedia still hopes the Mac maker approves the app at some point, although things don’t seem to be moving in that direction.
To be frank, the only reason we’re not 100% sure Apple won’t approve Opera Mini is that it hasn’t said “no” either. When a developer’s iPhone application gets rejected, they get a letter from Cupertino that explains why Apple had to leave it out. Opera itself will be the one breaking the final news to us, whether it’s good, or bad.
Now it’s your turn to speak your mind: do you think Apple is letting Opera hop aboard the App Store?