How the iPhone can help Opera and the mobile Web?
Published July 9th, 2007 1:25 PM EDT By Daniel GoldmanFarhad Manjoo wrote a nice column for Salon about how the iPhone can change the mobile phone business.
As makers of mobile phone browsers, we’re obviously now in competition with the iPhone (the iPhone uses the Safari browser). All the iPhone mania may seem like a threat to Opera, but that’s not necessarily how we view it (even though we’ve poked a little fun at the iPhone). The iPhone will demonstrate to users that browsing comfortably on mobile phones is possible. And hopefully phone manufacturers (and carriers/operators) will take notice, and make a better environment for mobile browsing.
If you enjoyed this post, then make sure you subscribe to my RSS Feed.What do you mean? How could the iPhone change the larger phone business?
Let me tell you a story. Last week I met with Jon von Tetzchner, the CEO of the Norwegian Web browser company Opera. Von Tetzchner was in San Francisco to promote the latest version of Opera Mini, a small program that people can download on their phones to speedily breeze through the Web. Surfing the Web on Opera Mini on an ordinary cellphone isn’t as pretty as surfing the Web on the iPhone, but it’s still quite useful. Through an ingenious server-caching system, the program shrinks down most Web sites so they come to your phone blazingly fast, and it allows you to scan and zoom in to Web sites in much the same way that you can on the iPhone.
Opera Mini will work on just about any phone on the market today — except the iPhone. (That’s the other problem with Apple’s phone: It’s locked down to other developers.) I asked von Tetzchner whether this worried him. In releasing a program for people to get the Web on their phones, wasn’t he just going to get soaked by the upcoming iPhone tsunami?
But von Tetzchner sees the picture exactly differently. Let’s say Apple sees crazy success, selling more iPhones than Steve Jobs ever dared dream — 20 million, 30 million, even 50 million phones over the next couple of years. How will its competitors react to this assault? Obviously, they’ll produce better phones. They’ll design better hardware, they’ll spend more on their user interfaces, and they’ll turn to software companies — companies like Opera — for help in improving the Web on mobile phones.
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Obviously, a well selling iPhone product might also lead to websites that are more conscious of mobile browsers, which would be an immediate benefit for Opera too.
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I noticed all of this too. I kind of hope that the iPhone is successful initially, then most of the phones are returned for a ton of problems or lack of needed features. It would give an opportunity for the other phone makers to improve on the iPhone’s flaws.
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I am strangely reminded of how well Firefox did for Opera’s market and mind share. I hope Opera doesn’t just expect to ride on the iPhone’s coattails, as it most likely won’t work as well as predicted.
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Opera has a lot more going for it on mobile phones, so more focus on mobile browsing will definitely benefit Opera. Especially since it’s the only real alternative to Safari that’s available for all relevant platforms. Safari is only available for iPhone, and the S60 browser is, well, only available for S60. Everyone else will have to use Opera. Which means lots of cash for Opera.
What is that supposed to mean? Opera is already experiencing massive growth in the mobile market. iPhone forcing other mobile manufacturers to respond with a proper browser will only contribute to that momentum.
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it is quite sily to expect that success of product A is going to bring Opera along. if BMW succes, our Audi cars are going to also sell better.. c’mon, it isnt the way world works, you know
success of firefox [alternative browser] didnt lead to opera popularity. and now you think that success of iphone, opera mini direct and most dangerous competitor is going to do her any good?
this is rather logic-less marketing speech. someone at opera is frightened to the bone..
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@rather underwhelmed,
right, but go back almost 100 years in time, to the birth of the automobile industry… Now is the birth of mobile browsing. IPhone being the T-Ford, making the market grow, a market big enough to feed more than one producer…
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The comarison is irrelevant because the car market is an established market. The mobile browser market isn’t. The market for browsers on mobile phones is currently growing rapidly and iPhone brings even more focus to the mobile internet, which increases the size of the market.
When the size of the market increases, the different players in the market can get more users/customers. Currently, Opera is the only company positioned properly to take advantage of the new focus on the mobile web, especially from iPhone.
The desktop market was already a well established market. (And Opera’s market share has actually increased since Firefox was released, not that it really matters in this case.)
iPhone is a phone. Opera Mini is a program. iPhone is not Opera Mini’s most dangerous competitor. In fact, that iPhone has a real browser built in puts pressure on other mobile manufacturers to do the same. Thus, the market for mobile browsers increases, and Opera is well positioned to take advantage of that.
Or you are just missing the point.
Don’t quit your day job to become an analyst any time soon…
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no, The Iphone is NOT the ‘T-Ford’… more like the ’sports car’ made for people that prefer looks, and have lots of money…
I think the first WAP phone was the nokia 7110 (1999) but the ‘model-T’ may have been the ‘9000 commumicator’ or the ‘Ericsson R380′ (both 2000)
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“The desktop market was already a well established market. (And Opera’s market share has actually increased since Firefox was released, not that it really matters in this case.)”
how marginal was opera increase? from 0.1 to 0.3? it is still ‘zero point ..’
and desktop browser market wasnt estabilished at all. how a new player [ff] could grow from 0.5% [opera levels] to 30-40% it has now?
“iPhone is a phone. Opera Mini is a program. iPhone is not Opera Mini’s most dangerous competitor. In fact, that iPhone has a real browser built in puts pressure on other mobile manufacturers to do the same. Thus, the market for mobile browsers increases, and Opera is well positioned to take advantage of that.”
iphone is a whole. apple always did everything they could to avoid separate brands for software. they have mail, write, tunes etc generic applications. safari is a bit different, it is one of the only few mac apps that are known to win users.
iphone is a whole - what that browser is, or is called is realy irrelevant, but it is ‘iphones browser’. that is enough to sell it in millions to another mobile vendors at apples leisure. hype of that ‘iphones’ will suffice to sell it [instead of give away]. hype, hype that opera mini hasnt got. it isnt cool, it isnt fresh. it is ‘an app’. apps arent cool, apple is.
“When the size of the market increases, the different players in the market can get more users/customers. Currently, Opera is the only company positioned properly to take advantage of the new focus on the mobile web, especially from iPhone.”
opera was positioned PERFECTLY when IE started to get very bad press few years ago. what happened? Firefox ignored that and took over.
market expanded incredibliy from these days. milions of new pages, bilions of new daily internet users.
from that day onwards it was ‘firefox = alternative browser, fast, secure’. somehow opera PERFECT position was wasted. nothing happens on its own, sometimes you need to utilise that advantage you have.. opera did not utilise it those days, and i dont think opera is going to this time. opera had great branding oportunity with Wii - cool console for cool people [i love my Wii.. it is so much different], but instead of Opera Browser it is Wii Internet Channel. aside from geeks, that use FF/Opera already, noone is going to know that Internet Channel is Opera in fact. wasted, wasted oportunity..
“Don’t quit your day job to become an analyst any time soon…”
funny things you say [irrelevant to disscussion ofc], as i dont need to work any more due to few good investments i did. so i’ll quit my job when i see fit or get borred, dont worry.
btw T-Ford was a breaktrough because it was CHEAP and at the same time COOL. and was a good car overall, but as opera example teaches us, that last thing isnt realy important when it comes to selling stuff.
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yeah, Im an absolute idiot, and opera is an idiotic scaredy-cat….
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Opera has for years brought the web to mobile devices, with success. Opera on PPC is a nice experience, upcoming Opera 9 on smartphones will do what iPhone does and more, and Opera Mini does a brilliant job on top to bottom range phones. Some fast growing numbers, Opera preinstalled on 10 million devices last quarter and Opera Mini used to access nearly a billion web pages last month…
Nothing wrong with Opera. And iPhone is welcomed to further open up this huge market. Apple, Steve Jobs, handles the marketing, and Opera supplies the browsers…Remember, not everybody is rich. Most haven’t got the $ 500 ++ … to play cool
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Yeah, I’m sure Apple is going to do the work to port their own software to their competitors’ platforms
But let me guess: your next attempt at this is to say that every single device manufacturer in the world should hire their own browser team?
Opera doesn’t have to be “cool” for mobile manufacturers to need a new browser to compete with iPhone.
Not at all. It wasn’t free of charge. You see, Opera has always had to remain independent and make its own money, unlike other browser manufacturers.
Again you are completely missing the fact that the desktop browser market has been mature for many years, while the mobile browser market is just getting started.
So what? That’s Nintendo’s choice. But apparently you didn’t catch the “Opera Powered” thing all over the place and Opera’s logo in the Wii box. Not that this has got anything to do with the discussion. Why do you keep going off-topic? We already know that you aren’t very well informed about Opera and the market, so perhaps you should try to stay on-topic in the future, and avoid confused statements that don’t make sense to people who know a few very basic things about Opera.
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you still dont understand. it isnt the quality of the product, but the way you see it, that matters.
opera in 7.54 days was better than firefox, both had enormous compatibility problems with IE-only pages, but opera was more mature as a browser. opera WAS A BETTER product those days. so what? Firefox was sold better, somebody spent as much time on selling it as on making it. and FF won that race, and all odds were against it. except, that firefox guys understood marketing soon enough.
exactly the same thing is going to happen with opera mini/mobile market. opera has a nice product [it is realy nice in fact], but so what? most people dont know about opera mini. to find about it, you need to be a geek or wander trough opera sites [that you dont know about, because you are not a geek], opera mini doesnt have ads in press, doesnt have press coverage. single articles in NYT or something are just this - single articles. no fan sites, no blogs, almost nothing. compare it to precisely commanded and executed ‘iphone hype’ done by apple.
you cant buy something you dont know it exists.
never in entire history being better was enough to sell something. never, ever.
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Looks like “rather underwhelmed” is expecting Apple to port Safari to the platforms used by their competitors. Or they are expecting all companies in the world to hire browser developers to adapt Webkit themselves. Maybe it’s just me, but both of these sound highly unlikely.
“rather underwhelmed” also doesn’t realize that “cool” doesn’t matter to mobile manufacturers. They just want a proper browser. Opera for desktop is aimed at everyone. Opera Mobile is mostly used by companies to preinstall on their phones. Two completely different markets.
He seems to forget these rather basic things.
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when companies need to provide their employees with advanced phones they equip them with BlackBerries. it is industry standard. that is not going to change anytime soon. industry standard is something that once estabilished is REALY difficult to change. iphones are not going to change that any time soon.
when companies equip employees with basic phones they choose whatever cheapest their curent supplier has in volume option. basic phones dont need a browser, and companies are not interested in funding their employees surfing habbits.
what apple is going to do with safari is up to apple. but after porting safari to windows i dont think it would be impossible to port it to java platform. thus placing it on the same shelf as the opera - any phone compatibilty. and safari is apple. apple could sell a poop with their badge on it, and still make people happy about buying it.
and dont be childish, apple is going to sell safari to competitors if they calculate that it will bring more money in long term, than it looses them due to lower iphone sales. it isnt about emotions and likes/dislikes, it is all about the money.
iphone will sell well regardles of competition - it is a hype thing, ipods arent the best players on the market, there are several better ones, but it doesnt matter, ipod is an ipod. same goes with iphone. what other computer stuff was lately covered in TV, press, webcasts etc? iphone, and before it - firefox, ipod.
could you imagine opera mini in mainstream tv as a main news? iphone did that.
btw. desktop market in times of IE bad press boom WASNT mature. in mature market new player cant take 30 or 40% of a market in two years [regardles of if it was financed externaly or not]. it was more mature than mobile market now, but hardly..
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“when companies need to provide their employees with advanced phones they equip them with BlackBerries. it is industry standard.”
Nokia’s smartphones sell infinitely better than BB.
“basic phones dont need a browser”
Opera Mini’s growth seems to disagree with you. Especially in poorer areas where Opera Mini is the only way to get online.
The hype around Opera Mini 4 has been wonderful as well, with lots of mainstream press coverage. And yes, iPhone helped Opera Mini 4!
“companies are not interested in funding their employees surfing habbits.”
Who’s talking about companies funding employees? Everyone here is talking about device manufacturers who need a browser. Everything that has a screen or is connected to the net will need a browser. The browser market is HUGE, and will be ENORMOUS in a few years. I wouldn’t be surprised if even more browser companies started appearing.
“but after porting safari to windows”
Which they did to get developers to tweak their sites for Safari, nothing else. And Safari on Mac is not a competitive advantage compared to Windows, while Safari on iPhone is a huge competitive advantage compared to most other phones.
“i dont think it would be impossible to port it to java platform.”
It would just have to be rewritten from scratch. And it would be pointless for Apple to lose one of their man competitive advantages compared to other phones.
“apple is going to sell safari to competitors”
Then they lose a huge competitive advantage. Not going to happen, sorry. You are basically expecting Apple to throw money out the window.
“could you imagine opera mini in mainstream tv as a main news?”
Opera Mini has been in the mainstream news many times.
“desktop market in times of IE bad press boom WASNT mature.”
Yes it was. IE was well established as the main browser, and the “browser wars” had been over for a long time. That Firefox came around and captured 10-15 per cent of the market doesn’t mean that the market wasn’t mature.
“it was more mature than mobile market now, but hardly..”
It was mature. The mobile browser market isn’t. It is just getting started.
Sorry dude, but you’re just clueless.
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Look, anyone who denies that the iPhone’s web capabilities will help Opera is obviously not part of this universe. Analysts unanimously agree that this will lead to browsing becoming even more important, and that means just one thing to Opera Software: more business. Anyone who thinks that Opera Software will get less business because of iPhone is obviously
delusional.
The same goes for those who expect Apple to port Safari to other mobile platforms. It was ported to Windows to help developers. But on a phone Safari is a huge selling point.
And other handset manufacturers are not going to wait for Apple to port Safari to their phones. Not only because it won’t happen, but also because they need a proper browser right now. And that’s Opera. It’s the only realistic option.
All Opera needs to do now is to release Opera 9 for mobile phones.
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“All Opera needs to do now is to release Opera 9 for mobile phones.”
and make it look cool, and make people know about it, or opera mini in general. i’ve NEVER seen an opera/mini ad. NEVER. EVER. aside from opera-fan-sites ive never read about it, too. it doesnt appear on digg regularly, it doesnt appear on other tech sites. no press - no market. and it realy does not appear in press often at all. single articles are not ‘press coverage’ we are talking about. iphone attacks me from every media i look at, firefox is mentioned in it about twice a week. ive never seen opera mentioned in any nation wide tv or cable news network, ever.
and i still think that it is still the same situation as with opera/ff few years ago - opera had proper browser, 10 or so years on the market, mature product. it was available ‘right now’. but firefox won that game, opera didnt even start to play that game in fact. theyve removed ads about year later. too late.
iphone for sure will help enlarge mobile market, but to expect it automagicaly help opera is.. naive. realy naive, nothing happens automagicaly, esp in bussines.
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Opera doesn’t have to look “cool” to be included on devices and phones by the manufacturer of these devices and phones. You are thinking like a user, not like a business. This comment says it all:
Do you really think that the executives in Motorola, Samsung, Nokia, Adobe, Nintendo, Sony, HTC, KDDI, etc. choose their browser based on DIGG?!
Oh yeah, and those are all some of Opera’s existing customers, by the way…
It is clear from your comments that you don’t know the first thing about business. While we’ve been talking about companies that produce devices you are only talking about end users it seems.
While iPhone will certainly help Opera Mobile and Opera Mini reach more end-users (look at all the times Opera Mini was mentioned next to the iPhone in the press, and in very flattering terms), the business case for Opera is mainly to sell to device manufacturers.
Opera has been pulling in one major contract after another. It’s not like they are sitting on their asses already, doing nothing.
And due to iPhone, they will have an even easier sell when talking to potential new business customers, as in device manufacturers. In the case of the iPhone, mainly mobile phone manufacturers who want to compete with iPhone.
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I just noticed after reading about the new vulnerability found in IE/Fx, there is a registered protocoll in Win after installing Firefox. So in theory you should be able to open a web page using it. Just try this in the address bar:
firefoxurl://google.com
it launches Firefox, alhough it doesn’t open up google on my machine. Will have to have an other look at it when I get back. See if I can find some documentation on it.
Making it a bookmark, and then add a nick name to it would be just as usefull as a button I guess.
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