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What all the above versions had in common is that they ran using a JVM (Java virtual machine). This has made Opera Mini compatible with a vast number of phones -- the browser's claimed to have more than 50 million users.
However, it also rendered Opera Mini somewhat irrelevant to those with Windows Mobile phones: Some devices ship without JVMs, and in any case, Opera Software has offered a native Windows Mobile version of its Opera Mobile web browser since 2004.
Today, however, Opera Software announced a native Windows Mobile version of Opera Mini, no longer requiring a JVM, and said to operate on any Windows Mobile 5.x or 6.x device. According to the company, the browser has the same feature set as its Java-based predecessor, which appears to have been brought largely in line with the latest Opera Mobile 10 (see below for background).
However, Opera Software says one key differentiator is that Opera Mini is designed to work through proxy servers. These servers translate web pages into OBML (Opera Binary Markup Language) before sending them to phone. OBML includes compressed images, and eliminates the need for the Opera Mini client to do error handling (since HTML is not a parsed variant of SGML, much of a normal browser's workload involves handling non-well-formed HTML).
The scheme compresses web pages by up to 90 percent, according to Opera, resulting in both faster browsing and "dramatically reduced" data transfer charges. The proxy servers run a large number of copies of Opera's web browser technology, which process web pages on behalf of the mobile phones, according to the company.
Another difference between Opera Mini and Opera Mobile appears to be that only the latter is compatible with Adobe's Flash Lite 3.1. Opera Software added "experimental" support for Flash Lite when it released Opera Mobile 10, Beta 3 for Windows Mobile last month.
Background
Opera's Mobile 10 Beta 3 is an update to an initial beta released last November and a Beta 2 that quickly followed in December. According to an entry on the company's blog, Beta 3 brings "experimental" support for Adobe's Flash Lite 3.1, and now supports both Windows Mobile Professional (touchscreen) and Windows Mobile Standard (keypad only) devices.
Opera says Mobile 10's new Flash support offers a "quite good" experience on 1GHz phones, but can still be "mediocre to poor" on slower devices. For that reason, it's said, the plug-in is not activated by default, but can be turned on via the browser's settings menu. To minimize CPU and bandwidth usage, Mobile 10 also requires that users click on Flash content before it will begin to play, the company adds.
In our testing, Mobile 10 did load and play Flash content -- albeit slowly -- even in a Windows Mobile emulator running on a desktop PC. As the above images show, videos now appear in context on a web page, just as they would on a desktop browser.
According to Opera, Mobile 10's Flash support is only provided on touchscreen devices. But other improvements, which extend to the new keypad-only version too, are said to include Opera Link bookmark syncing, automatic conversion of phone numbers on web pages to click-and-dial links, support for background sound, and a variety of stability fixes.
Background
The key feature of Opera Mobile 10, touted as "elevating mobile browsing to a desktop-like experience," is its user interface, which has been redesigned with features inherited from Opera's browser for desktop computers. The interface includes Speed Dial (below left), designed to store thumbnails of frequently launched websites on a page that appears whenever the browser is launched.
According to Opera, its browser also features tabbed browsing (above right), complete with visual thumbnails that make it easy to switch from page to page. Meanwhile, navigation buttons have been simplified, and a pop-up settings menu (left) lets users choose whether or not to use compression and to load mobile versions of web pages, the company adds.
Opera Mobile 10's interface is said to have been designed with both touchscreen and keypad-style phones in mind. Touchscreen phones get "even easier navigation with our new adaptive zoom feature, kinetic scrolling, and visual tab thumbnails," according to the company. On keypad phones, it's said, navigation has been optimized with a virtual mouse cursor, a box that highlights a zoomed-in area, and a variety of shortcut keys.
Opera Software announced its previous Opera Mobile 9.7 in March 2009, then showed it off to carriers during April's CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas, releasing a public beta version in June. A key, consumer-friendly feature of the new release was said to be its improved support for Adobe Flash, but at the time, a Flash plug-in was not included.
Opera Mobile 9.7 was said to add improved support for AJAX and other web standards, passing the ACID3 test with a 100 percent score. The browser also supported the Open GL ES standard for graphics acceleration, and operated with the Google Gears API (application programming interface), according to the company.
The previously available Opera Mobile 9.5 first shipped in February 2008 with HTC's Touch Diamond phone, and was updated to Opera Mobile 9.51 beta 2 later the same year. The latter version was the first to add compatibility with Opera's "widgets" architecture for creating small, portable software applications. Similar to, though apparently not completely compatible with, widget implementations being promoted by Access, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!, the technology was touted as an easy way for carriers to add branded software to devices quickly.
In 2008, Opera Software and Nvidia also announced plans to collaborate on a version of Opera Mobile the companies claimed would deliver higher performance and lower battery consumption on devices using the chipmaker's ARM11-based SoCs. Devices using the Tegra processors and an "optimized" Opera Mobile were expected to ship last year, but are apparently still in the works.
Further information
The Opera Mini 5 beta for Windows Mobile is downloadable now for free from the Opera Software website, here.
