Opera inks pacts with mobile makers to pre-install web browser

NEW DELHI: Opera Software today said it has signed up with seven Indian mobilephone makers to pre-install its Opera mini mobile web browser in their upcoming handsets, phablets and tablets.


The Norwegian software developer's mobile web browser will be the exclusive third-party browser to be pre-installed on all Android devices by Celkon, Karbonn, Lava and Intex, while, Opera mini will be pre-installed on select Android devices by Fly, Zen and HCL ME tablets.

"Opera mini is well suited for Indian mobile networks, thanks to its data compression," Opera Software Vice President ( South Asia) Sunil Kamath said.

The compression technology renders webpages on Opera's servers before displaying them on a mobile device, reducing data transfers to as little as 10 per cent of the original webpage size.

Opera Mini comes with features like Smart Page, Speed Dial, tabbed browsing, password manager, download manager and Opera Link and can be downloaded for free, he added.

India is one of the fastest growing countries for adoption of mobile Internet, he said.

Opera's 'State of the Android Mobile Web' report claims that India has the largest number of Opera Mini users in the world.

Besides, the number of Indians using mobile devices to get online is on the rise on account of availability of affordable smartphones, the report added.

Headquartered in Oslo (Norway), Opera has offices in 13 locations around the world, along with operations in four subsidiary companies.