Opera Mini is a web browser designed primarily for mobile phones, smartphones and personal digital assistants. Until version 4 it used the Java ME platform, requiring the mobile device to run Java ME applications. From version 5 it is also available as a native application for Android, bada, iOS, Symbian OS, and Windows Mobile. Opera Mini is offered free of charge, supported mainly through deals with mobile operators to have Opera Mini pre-installed in phones,and other sources of revenue such as search advertising deals, licensing and paid bookmarks and Speed Dial placement.
Opera Mini was derived from the Opera web browser for personal computers, which has been publicly available since 1996. Opera Mini began as a pilot project in 2004. After limited releases in Europe, it was officially launched worldwide on 24 January 2007.
Opera Mini requests Web pages through Opera Softwares servers, which process and compress them before sending them to the mobile phone, speeding up transfer by two to three times and dramatically reducing the amount of data transferred, chargeable on many Mobile Phones data plans. The pre-processing increases compatibility with web pages not designed for mobile phones. However, interactive sites which depend upon the device processing JavaScript do not work properly.
In July 2012, it was reported that Opera Mini had 168.8 million users as of March 2012. In February 2013, Opera reported 300 million unique Opera Mini active users and 150 billion page views served during that month. This represented an increase of 25 million from September 2012.
History
Origin
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 10 August 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 20 October 2005. After the final version was launched in Germany on 10 November 2005, and quietly released to all countries through the Opera Mini website in December, the browser was officially launched worldwide on 24 January 2006.
On 3 May 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 1 November 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 22 November, and on 28 November, the final version of Opera Mini 3 was released.
Opera Mini 4
On 7 November 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 8 January 2007, Opera Software and Yahoo! announced a partnership to make Yahoo! search the default instead. On 27 February 2008, Opera Software announced that Google would henceforth be the default search engine for Opera Mini and Opera Mobile
A version for the Android operating system was announced on 10 April 2008. Rather than port the code to Android, awrapper was created to translate Java ME API calls to Android API calls.
Opera Mini 5
On 16 August 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.
The browser's use of compression and encrypted proxy-based technology to reduce traffic and speed page display has the side effect of allowing it to circumvent several approaches to Internet sencorshipSince 20 November 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 Farwell in China. Opera agreed to route all of their traffic through government servers.
2009–10: 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.
An iPhone version was approved for distribution by the Apple App Store on 13 April 2010.
Most Opera Mini versions use only the Mini server-based compression method, with maximal compression but some issues with interactive applications. Non-Mini versions of Opera for phones and computers originally operated in uncompressed mode; from v10 a selectable server-based Turbo mode (called "off-road" in some versions) was added, similar to Mini mode, but bypassing compression for interactive functionality, at the expense of less extreme data compression. Opera Mini 8 for iPhone, released in 2014, can operate in Mini, Turbo, and uncompressed modes, effectively combining the functionality of the Mobile and Mini versions.Turbo and Mini modes reduce the amount of data transferred, which reduces cost on some phone contracts and increases speed on the slower connections typical of mobile phone networks; with a high-speed connection uncompressed mode, without delays due to diverting through the Opera server, compressing by the server, and expansion by the device, may work faster.
On 3 September 2014, Opera started taking registrations for the beta version of Opera Mini for Window Phone Opera Mini was released for Windows Phone six days later, on 9 September 2014, as a public beta. This marked Opera's return to Microsoft's mobile platform since the demise of Windows Mobile
0 comments:
Post a Comment