Opera Software has announced worldwide availability of a free “mini” Web browser for mobile phones, following successful beta testing in Scandinavia. Opera Mini offers a full Web experience to some 700 million low- and mid-range phones that can run Java apps, the company says.

(Click for larger view of Opera Mini screenshot)

The browser executable has a footprint of 50-100KB, the company says, and supports J2ME (Java 2 micro edition) MIDP (mobile information device profile) 1.0 and 2.0. The normal Opera Mobile browser, in contrast, has a footprint of 1-2MB.

The Opera Mini browser works through proxy servers that are currently hosted by Opera. The proxies translate Web pages into OBML (Opera Binary Markup Language) before sending them to the phone. OBML includes compressed images, and eliminates the need for the Opera Mini client to do error handling — since HTML is not a parsed variant of SGML, much of a normal browser's workload involves handling non-well-formed HTML. The scheme compresses Web pages by up to 80 percent, according to Opera, resulting in both faster browsing and “dramatically reduced” data transfer charges.

The proxy servers run a large number of copies of Opera's Web browser technology, which process the Web pages on behalf of the mobile phones. The scheme makes use of Opera's small screen rendering technology to improve Web-page usability on low-end displays, the company says.

Example of Opera browser's Small Screen Rendering. The left image indicates how a normal web page tends to display on a phone's tiny LCD; the right image shows how SSR renders the page.
(click each image for a larger view)

Opera says its Mini browser will help carriers increase ARPU (average revenue per customer) by allowing low- and mid-range phone users to access the full Web. The company estimates that 700 million existing phones are capable of using the software.

The company says it hopes to monetize the free-to-use Opera Mini browser by creating customized, re-branded versions for mobile operators, broadcasters, content providers, and Internet companies.

“With Opera Mini most people can start surfing the Web with the mobile phone they have today,” said Opera CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner. “We are proud to be the first to offer full, mobile Web browsing to the majority of the world's mobile phone users.”

Easy installation

Mini supports over-the-air (OTA) installation, making it as easy to install as a ringtone. Users can use WAP browsers or SMS clients to download the software.

“You simply send an SMS or direct your phone's WAP browser to mini.opera.com,” the company said.

Opera Mini's start page features a Google search box for quick access to Web search. And the customizable bookmark list makes it easy to save and surf your favorite sites.

Mini is currently available in English, German, Spanish, French, Russian, Polish, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, with more languages to follow shortly, Opera said.

Opera began beta-testing Opera Mini in Scandinavia last fall.

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