Opera Mini 5 for iPhone Submitted to iTunes for Approval

If you thought the browser wars were limited to your PC, here is the shocker: Opera has begun to taunt Apple with its cool new browser for iPhone, the Opera Mini 5.

opera mini iphone

It claims to be 6 times faster than iPhone’s native browser Safari and the Norwegian company boasts that it can compress data by 90% which means, roaming charges on the iPhone would be reduced as well.

However, Apple may not agree to an external browser on the iPhone for it has always argued that the basic system of the iPhone can’t be changed, and when something that lets you browse easily already exists on the iPhone, there is no point in confusing the users with many options. While we leave Opera and Apple to sort it all out, let us just check what Opera Mini 5 offers for the iPhone users.

Opera Mini 5 offers extremely fast browsing, and a snappy experience for the user. You can open new pages in tabs, just like you would on a computer. Using the iPhone’s touchscreen abilities, you can zoom in, zoom out, turnaround and move around web pages really easily.

opera mini iphone vs safari

The video promoter cheekily says that in the time duration Apple’s Safari took to load the New York Time’s homepage completely, Opera Mini 5 loaded 5 pages completely. It does seem quite interesting and the clarity of the web pages isn’t bad either.

However, we shall have to see of Apple would let a rival company take over its own iPhone, and allow Safari to get a tough competition. While Apple may not allow that to happen, most iPhone users are quite satisfied with the way Safari works, and most of us do not use Opera even on our PCs. Thus, it all depends on the users who might actually not decide to make the switch after all. Even if they do, Apple might have to reject citing the non-requirement of alternative browsers for the iPhone.

Whether Apple accepts Opera Mini 5, which was submitted by Opera on iTunes or not is something that is beyond us. However, Opera seems to be trying to make a point and declare its Opera Mini 5 to be the fastest and most convenient web browser out there. This might actually encourage people to use Opera on their PCs, and thus the submission may have indirect benefits to Opera nonetheless.

Recently, Opera 10.50 for Windows was launched and a similar claim of being the fastest web browser was made. While Microsoft had no issues with this claim, users too gave a tepid response and we may see the same kind of lukewarm reaction from the iPhone users as well.

If you are in fact searching for different browsers for your PC or Mac, check out the cool Internet Browsers Collection including many you probably haven’t heard about.

Thanks Oded for the tip!