Opera revs mobile Web browser

Opera Software, already delivering some of the Web's most widely used and advanced mobile browsers, today announced an update to its core mobile product that it says brings it closer to a desktop Web browsing experience.

Improving the mobile browsing experience is suddenly all the rage. In recent days and weeks, vendors including Skyfire, Mozilla and Apple have announced or delivered new browsers that make it possible to browse the desktop Web on a phone. Common advances include slick pan-and-zoom interfaces for navigating Web pages and support for advanced technologies like Flash and Ajax.

Opera already has a candidate in the "high-fidelity" mobile browsing wars in Opera Mini, which, thanks to its Java core, runs on a wide array of devices, including fairly basic cell phones.

Opera Mobile is its more fully featured browser built specifically for smartphones and other advanced devices. The new Opera Mobile 9.5, announced today and available soon in beta version, includes those now-familiar zoom-and-pan capabilities as well as tabbed browsing, landscape mode and faster content loading. It also displays pages heavy with Javascript and Ajax, the company said, and includes support for Flash Light (which must be added by device makers or operators). The browser also supports Opera Widgets, mini applications that run on the phone and quickly deliver content.

To further appeal to OEMs and operators, the browser includes the ability to serve Web content -- including advertisements or brand images -- directly on the browser idle screen.

Opera Mobile is currently available for shipping to partners as a standalone browser and SDK. Opera says its browser is currently shipped on more than 100 million phones with partners including HTC, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and T-Mobile. A public beta of Opera Mobile 9.5 will be announced shortly, the company said.

Opera Mobile 9.5 will be available for Symbian, Windows Mobile and Linux mobile operating systems.