



The Opera Browser running on

what is patently not an iPhone

Although in numbers it lags behind Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari, the Opera web browser is known for having a devoted fanbase. Opera has made inroads into gaming consoles and mobile platforms including the Wii, Nintendo DS, and approximately 40 million cell phones. So, you'd imagine that Opera would be a perfect match to the iPhone.

Unfortunately, Apple thinks otherwise. A New York Times story from this week says that an iPhone version of Opera failed to make it past Apple's gatekeeper, "[Founder Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner] said that Opera's engineers have developed a version of Opera Mini that can run on an Apple iPhone, but Apple won't let the company release it because it competes with Apple’s own Safari browser," the Times wrote.

Opera is known for being fast and secure, as well as accessible to a wide range of users. The mobile version of Opera can dynamically reformat web pages to better fit handheld displays using the company's small screen rendering technology. And, even though Opera representatives state that this rejection was due to duplicated functionality, Opera would have had a tough time getting through a different gate: Apple will not allow programs to interpret code. Opera, being a full-featured browser, interprets JavaScript downloaded from the Internet, an absolute App Store no-no.

This isn't the first time that Apple has rejected software for duplicating core functionality. In September, Apple said no to MailWrangler, a program that simplified accessing multiple Gmail accounts. Around the same time, the company also declined to host Al Sokirynsky's Podcaster app, which allowed users to download podcasts and play them on the iPhone. Because of this, we don't find Opera's rejection particularly surprising, although it is a bit disappointing. Mobile Safari is a great mobile platform, but it would have been nice to have an iPhone version of Opera to play around with.

Update: Gruber says the app probably wasn't even submitted.