Opera Mobile is a web browser for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) developed by the Opera Software company. The first version of Opera Mobile was released in 2000 for the Psion Series 7 and netBook. Today, Opera Mobile is available for a variety of devices that run the Windows Mobile, S60, or UIQ operating systems.

Users may try Opera Mobile free for 30 days, but beyond that it costs 24 US$. Devices that use the UIQ 3 operating system, such as the Sony Ericsson P990 and Motorola RIZR Z8, come pre-installed with Opera Mobile, the price of Opera Mobile being included in the price of the phone.

History

The first devices to run a mobile edition of Opera were the Psion Series 7 and netBook. They ran Opera Mobile 3.6, released in 2000.

Opera Mobile was ported to the Windows Mobile operating system in 2003.

Features

Opera Mobile can dynamically reformat Web pages for narrow tall screens, using Opera's Small Screen Rendering (SSR) technology. The technology itself is proprietary, but Web page authors can affect how their content is handled by SSR with Cascading Style Sheets.

Opera Mobile supports many web standards, including Ajax.

Critical reception

Like previous versions of the desktop edition of Opera, Opera Mobile's user interface has come under fire for being difficult to use and/or customize.

Awards

Smartphone and PocketPC Magazine "Best mobile browser for both Windows-based Pocket PC and Smartphones" 2007

Mobile Gala "Best program for mobile phones" 2004

Mobile Gala "Best program for handheld computers" 2004

Tietokone magazine "Best Software Product of the Year" 2003

Future development

The Opera Software company has announced the next version of its software, Opera Mobile 9, will support widgets and offer a more intelligent zoom feature. Opera Mobile 9 also passes the Acid2 test. Opera Mobile 9 is being ported from the desktop edition of Opera. It is expected to be released in the first half of 2008.