A couple of days ago we wrote about Opera Mini for the iPhone, a somewhat odd step for Opera as Apple is unlikely to ever approve the app (since it duplicates Safari's functionality).

While Opera was obviously making a statement with that move, in reality it can survive without the iPhone; in fact, Opera Mini is one of the most popular mobile browsers out there.

The latest number to support this claim is 50 million active users. Opera Mini was launched in 2006 and had a somewhat slow start; it took it nearly two and a half years to reach the first 10 million; in the last couple of months, however, it has been growing a lot faster. According to Opera, Mini has grown 150% from January 2009, when it had 20 million monthly unique users, to 50 million monthly unique users in January 2010.

To try out Opera Mini, you need a Java ME-enabled phone; you can find the latest version over at the official Opera Mini site.