Opera Mini - History

History

Opera Mini was derived from the Opera web browser for personal computers, which has been publicly available since 1996. Opera Mini was originally intended for use on mobile phones not capable of running a conventional Web browser. It was introduced on August 10, 2005 as a pilot project in cooperation with the Norwegian television station TV 2, and only available to TV 2 customers.

A beta version was made available in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland on October 20, 2005. After the final version was launched in Germany on November 10, 2005, and quietly released to all countries through the Opera Mini website in December, the browser was officially launched worldwide on January 24, 2006.

On May 3, 2006, Opera Mini 2.0 was released. It included new features such as the ability to download files, new custom skins, more search engine options on the built-in search bar, a speed dial option, new search engines, and improved navigation.

On November 1, 2006, Opera Mini 3 beta introduced secure browsing, RSS feeds, photo uploading and content folding into its list of features and capabilities. Content folding works by folding long lists such as navigation bars into a single line that can be expanded as needed. A second beta was released on November 22, and on November 28, the final version of Opera Mini 3 was released.

On November 7, 2007 Opera Mini 4 was released. According to Johan Schön, technical lead of Opera Mini development, the entire code was rewritten. Opera Mini 4 includes the ability to view web pages similarly to a desktop based browser by introducing Overview and Zoom functions, and a landscape view setting. In Overview mode, the user can scroll a zoomed-out version of certain web pages. Using a built-in pointer, the user can zoom into a portion of the page to provide a clearer view; this is similar to the functionality of Opera's Nintendo-based web browsers. This version also includes the ability to synchronise with Opera on a personal computer.

Prior to Opera Mini 4, the browser was offered in two editions: Opera Mini Advanced for high-memory MIDP 2 phones, and Opera Mini Basic for low-memory MIDP 1 phones. Opera Mini 4 replaced Opera Mini Advanced. The older Opera Mini 3 Basic was still available for low-memory phones as of 2012.

Originally, Google was the default search engine on Opera Mini. On January 8, 2007, Opera Software and Yahoo! announced a partnership to make Yahoo! search the default instead. On February 27, 2008, Opera Software announced that Google would henceforth be the default search engine for Opera Mini and Opera Mobile.

It was reported in the New York Times on October 27, 2008 that an iPhone client had been developed. Opera submitted the App to the App Store on March 23, 2010, and it was approved on April 13, 2010.

A version for the Android operating system was announced on April 10, 2008. Rather than port the code to Android, a wrapper was created to translate Java ME API calls to Android API calls.

On August 16, 2009, Opera Software released Opera Mini 5.0 beta, which included tabbed browsing, a password manager, improved touch screen support, and a new interface, with a visual Speed Dial similar to the one introduced by Opera Software in their desktop browser.

Since November 20, 2009, there have been reports from Chinese users that when they use Opera Mini, they are redirected to an error page leading them to download Opera Mini China Version. This is almost certainly due to the Chinese government being concerned that users are using Opera Mini to bypass the Great Firewall in China. Opera agreed to route all of their traffic through government servers.

2009–2010: A press release announcing that Indonesia's Smart Telecom had chosen Opera Mini for their devices said that Opera Mini was the world's most popular mobile browser, and that Russia and Indonesia were the largest users.