Opera partners seven new handset makers in India

MUMBAI: Mobile phone browser Opera Software today said it is focusing on further expanding its India business to drive growth in the South Asian region and has partnered with seven new handset makers, including Micromax, Spice and Wynncom as part of these efforts.


Under the partnerships in India with Micromax, Videocon, Spice, MoMagic Technologies, Wynncom, Lemon Mobiles and iBall, the OEMs will preinstall Opera Mini browser as an exclusive, third-party mobile browser across their upcoming Android devices, Opera said in a statement.

"India is home to the largest number of Opera Mini users in the world. Partnering with local OEMs in India and neighbouring countries is part of our growth strategy to take Opera Mini's user numbers in the region from strength to strength," Opera Software Vice President for South Asia Sunil Kamath said.

Since the beginning of this year, more than 100 Android devices with Opera Mini preinstalled on them have been launched in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, he added.

Opera has also signed two similar OEM partnerships with Symphony Mobile in Bangladesh and Colors Mobile in Nepal.

Some of the recent Android smartphones to be launched with Opera Mini include Micromax's Canvas 4 and Canvas Doodle 2, Spice's Coolpad, Lava Iris 506Q, Celkon Campus A20, and Karbonn A9 Star.

Earlier in the year, Opera also announced partnerships with seven Indian mobile OEMs, including Celkon, Karbonn, Lava, Intex, Fly, Zen and HCL. Overall, Opera is working with 17 handset manufacturers in the region.

Opera products enable more than 350 million Internet consumers globally.