Exclusive: New Opera product to launch on June 20th
Published June 7th, 2006 12:43 AM EDT By Daniel GoldmanOpera Watch Exclusive
Opera is set to launch a new product this coming June 20th, 2006.
I’m not sure at this time what the new product may be. It is either the official launch of Opera 9 (See: Opera 9 Review), or the release of a brand new product.
The product launch will take place in Seattle, Washington (USA), and is by invitation only. For those not familiar with Seattle, it’s only a half an hour drive from Microsoft land. Is Opera planning on invading Microsoft? Or is this a joint product with Microsoft? Just speculating.
I believe Opera’s CEO, Jon von Tetzchner, will attend this product launch. It was a little over a year ago when Opera’s CEO took upon himself the one million download challenge of Opera 8 and his failed attempt to swim to the USA from Norway. Will he turn around and swim to Norway this time?
Stay tuned for more details.
Update (6/7/2006 9:27AM): I’m working on getting more details on this new product launch. So far I haven’t gotten much more. But a top Opera source tells Opera Watch that the details of this new product likely won’t be released until June 20th or very close to that date. Which leads me to believe that this is not Opera 9 related, but rather something much bigger.
A top Opera official also told me “if you’re an Opera fan, you’ll want to be there.”
Also worth mentioning, as pointed out by Saito in the comments, that Seattle is also home to Nintendo USA.
Update (6/12/2006 10:24AM): I’ve accepted an invitation by Opera to attend the product launch in Seattle.
P.S. I’ll be posting updates to this post as I get more details. Most RSS Readers don’t send the updates, if the post has already been sent. So check back here at the Opera Watch site often.
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An announcement on June 20th that Yahoo, Google, and MSNBC have all decided to make their sites fully compatible with Opera would be wonderful news!
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I would be very suprised if it’s Opera 9 launch, as there have been no release candidates, and it’s still got a way to go before it’s release quality IMHO.
I think it’s something new…
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Seattle? Hometown of Nintendo USA.
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Is opera 9.0 really that close to stable? I’ve heard of numerous stability and bug issues with the latest betas, are they trying to push it out to quickly?
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Nintendo USA, eh? This is going to be the US release of Opera for DS, isn’t it? Or a preview of Opera for Wii. *excitement*
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Since Seattle is on the Pacific ocean, swimming from Seattle to Norway would be particularly difficult.
On the other hand, perhaps we’ll see MSN-branded Opera Mini?
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Yep Microsoft land == Nintendo USA land, I assume its the launch of Opera DS
something which I’ll be getting…once its realeased in Europe.
I can’t see any other reason why they would launch a new product in Seattle.
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Hmm, Microsoft-land.. Opera on Windows Vista?:D
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No, it’s too early for Opera 9 release. Even for RC.
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Or is this a joint product with Microsoft?
Hope not, cause if it is, it will probably be the last time I use Opera.
Hmm. Should have posted this with Opera.
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Hey look, my poll idea is up there.
Thanks Daniel
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Sohil,
Yes, and thanks for the email. Unfortunately I can’t give credit for poll ideas, unless I write a post about it.
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No thats fine. 1 more thing, the main shows 13 comments. Does the Trackback count as a comment ?
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hmm interesting, my best guess though, would possibly be an opera DS worldwide launch? Either that or its something not been talked about before.
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Sairam, the comment count on the main page counts both comments and trackbacks together. However, on the post page, I seperated the trackbacks from the comments.
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i think it is opera mobiles new version using nokia web browsers open source code .
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Why launch it in Seattle?
My guess is that it has to be some kind of a partner deal with a company located in that area.
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“i think it is opera mobiles new version using nokia web browsers open source code .”
HAHAHAHAHAHA… Right.
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I believe that on this fateful day, Opera will announce that they are buying Microsoft and taking over development of Vista to make it more Opera-like. Reportedly, both Gates and Ballmer have been beseeching Opera execs for help with the newest MSOS.
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Congratulation to the invitation Daniel.
My guess since the last weekly is that it will be the launch of Opera9 final.
It is just about the time I would expect the final. Beta2 is already some time ago and it is quite usual to have final after Beta2. Also the last weeklys don’t have new features and are really stabel in general (there is just about enough time to remove the known bugs). The strongest hint yet is that the MSI installer is not longer updating the beta version but the last final on the system (in my case 8.54)!
US is a good choice for the product launch as on first thought it is the best market to raise desktop revenue again (which halved after Opera ASA made desktop Opera free software).