Opera Mini 5 on Android: Why?
By Christopher Dawson | March 11, 2010, 7:41am PST
Summary: I’m a big fan of the Opera browser, both in its grown-up desktop client and its mobile browser. It’s my browser of choice on my Blackberry and it, along with Chrome and Firefox, are default options I offer to users. It’s fast, pretty, and has useful features for developers. It works a [...]
I’m a big fan of the Opera browser, both in its grown-up desktop client and its mobile browser. It’s my browser of choice on my Blackberry and it, along with Chrome and Firefox, are default options I offer to users. It’s fast, pretty, and has useful features for developers. It works a treat on my kid’s Nintendo DSi, too. Great. Today, the company released a significantly updated beta for Android and, despite my affection for the browser, I’m left scratching my head.
Android, like the iPhone, already has a great web browser built in based on the WebKit framework. It’s fast, renders well, and integrates nicely with the rest of the phone’s OS. Choice and competition, of course, are all well and good. One has to wonder, though, what incentives users might have to choose Opera Mini over the native Android browser (or over Safari on the iPhone, for that matter).
According to Opera’s press release,
Opera Mini 5 beta for Android is finally here! Featuring all your favorite Opera features such as Speed Dial, tabbed browsing, compression, speed and a smooth design.
We know many of you have been waiting a long time to get Opera Mini for Android, so we’re very excited to hear what you think of it!
True, the Android browser lacks true tabbed browsing (although one could argue that multiple switchable windows are actually a more useful paradigm on a small screen). Does the speed dial feature cut it? According to PCWorld, “There is also a password manager that can be used to store passwords for e-mail, social networking sites and online banking.”
What am I missing here? Is it worth it to replace the native browser on Android like it is on a Blackberry?
Poll
Is Opera Mini 5 Beta for Android a worthwhile upgrade?
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Chris Dawson is a freelance writer and consultant with years of experience in educational technology and web-based systems. In 2011, he became the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network SaaS provider.
Disclosure
Christopher Dawson
Christopher Dawson is the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., by day and a freelance writer and educational technology consultant by night. Well, most of his colleagues at WizIQ are based in India, so really he's working with them whenever he can stay awake. He has worked for his local school district as a teacher and technology director, for the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and for Biogen, Inc. (now Biogen-IDEC, Inc.).
He has also consulted with STATNet and Cytyc Corporation and retains close ties with X2 Development Corporation (now owned by Follett Software, the supplier of the student information system he administered for several years). Follett is paying him a monthly honorarium to act as a presenter for their "SIS Voices for Student Achievement" community (he produces occasional blog posts and hosts a monthly webinar on the use of student information systems to inform data-driven instruction and school-wide change.
He regularly purchases and/or recommends Dell hardware. This is because Dell makes good hardware and has truly committed itself to education in innovative ways, particularly with their "Connected Classroom" initiative. It isn't because he has dealings with the company through his role at WizIQ (which he does) or because they have provided him with long-term loans of a variety of equipment for in-depth testing (which they have).
Intel (reference designer for the Classmate PCs he has implemented in his local schools) has provided him with long-term loans of Classmate PCs for testing, as have Dell and Lenovo with their educational offerings. He may report on any of these companies as his experiences with them have direct bearing on educational technology; positive reports are not necessarily an endorsement and he receives no direct financial compensation from these companies or any others.
Intel paid all expenses for his attendance at the 2009 Intel Classmate PC Ecosystem Summit which he attended as the sole representative of the technology press. He was invited to attend in 2010 but his wife would have killed him if he spent 3 days in Vegas geeking out and left her home alone with a new baby. Acer provided him with a 50% discount on an Aspire One netbook in early 2009 after he tested it for 30 days through their educational seed program. He liked the netbook at the time but it has since broken and sits unused in his office. Canonical sent him Ubuntu lanyards, t-shirts, and mousepads for his kids. He stole one of the lanyards and proudly hangs his keys from it and occasionally features his 8-year old wearing an oversized Ubuntu t-shirt on his Facebook profile. Gunnar Optiks sent him a pair of computer glasses to evaluate for a holiday gift guide. He is wearing them now as he types this because they never asked for them back and they rock out loud. Seriously - they work brilliantly and make it much easier to spend 20 hours a day staring at an LCD. If they ever asked for them back, he would fork over the $99 and buy a pair.
Microsoft gave him 2 free copies of Office 2010 professional, a desktop clock, and a useless book on Office 2010 when he attended the launch of Office/Sharepoint 2010. He occasionally uses the SharePoint lanyard they gave him instead of the Ubuntu lanyard for his keys, but feels dirty afterwards.
Adobe provided him with a pre-release version of the CS5 Master Collection for evaluation and ultimately provided a full, licensed copy for ongoing testing of educational applications of this admittedly expensive software. Like the Gunnars, if the license expires or they come out with CS6, he'd actually go out and buy it himself. Which is saying something, because he's actually pretty cheap.
Any other companies wishing to send him cool things to evaluate, wear, or otherwise adorn his kids are more than welcome to; he promises to disclose it here if he keeps any of the stuff.
Finally, because WizIQ is a virtual classroom and learning network provider, Chris, as VP of Marketing, frequently interacts with, seeks out deals with, and directly or indirectly competes with a whole lot of LMS, SIS, and other Education 2.0 companies. In general, he'll limit his reporting about these companies to news that does not impact his relationship with them or with WizIQ. If he reports on them, it's because what they are doing is newsworthy or worth the attention of his readers and not because he's trying to broker some deal, damage competition, or otherwise advance his position in his day job. LMS and SIS companies, along with other online learning communities, are a pretty important part of Ed Tech. If he stops reporting on them completely, there won't be a whole lot left. He'll be sure to call out any overt conflicts of interest if they are unavoidable.
Finally, Follett Software Company pays him a little tiny honorarium every month to present on their SIS Voices webinars and to write the occasional blog or discussion thread for them. Since Follett recently bought X2 (maker of an awesome web-based SIS that Chris just happened to have used, served in advisory groups for, and frequently reported on), this is probably also worth disclosing.
Biography
Christopher Dawson
Christopher Dawson grew up in Seattle, back in the days of pre-antitrust Microsoft, coffeeshops owned by something other than Starbucks, and really loud, inarticulate music. He escaped to the right coast in the early 90's and received a degree in Information Systems from Johns Hopkins University. While there, he began a career in health and educational information systems, with a focus on clinical trials and related statistical programming and database modeling. This focus led him to several positions at Johns Hopkins, a couple-year stint in private industry, teaching high school math and technology, and 2 years as the technology director for his local school district. Most recently, he started his own consulting business and is now the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network provider.
He lives with his wife, five kids (yes, 5), 2 dogs, and a hateful cat in a small town in north-central Massachusetts. Although he is no longer teaching, his roles with WizIQ and ZDNet allow him to continue helping students and teachers add value to education with technology rather than merely adding to the bottom line.
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It would seem to me that a primary reason to use Opera Mini is the reduced data usage as well as increased speed of the browser. That doesn't mean mini is great for everything, but in some cases the reduced BW translates to money saved and the speed is handy for things were you just want to quick load to look at an article or piece of data (especiallly on some websites that throw a milion graphics and ads that take considerable time to load). Sorry for the late post on this article.
browsers. But, yes, unlike Windows, the default
browser is a very good experience on Android!!
Let me guess...
"As a ZDNet TalkBack discussion at the end of an article that is not related to Microsoft grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Microsoft or Windows approaches 1."
Do you open source guy's not want choice, Should Opera not be allowed because you think Android has better browsers?
This flies in the face of the whole IE debate, and the EU case against MS. So as long as someone is going against MS its "ok" but go against Andriod defaults and its ?????. OH MY, OH MY.
I hate Opera, I will not use it on any device, but thay have a right to make software and people have the right to use their software if they want to.
Those of us that use android are not against having options. Options are great, in fact I hope the mobile Firefox version will support android. I just think that there are no compelling reasons to switch at this time, that does not mean I won't try it.
I was just wondering if folks saw a point. Like I said, the Android browser
is *really* good. Jason Perlow called me out and said that he preferred
Opera Mini.
"Is there really a market" probably would have been a better question.
Of course they have a right to make software - they make really good
software. I'm asking if, in this case, it's good enough to be worth
developing on the platform and if it adds much in the way of value.
cad
Of course there's a market. Even the crappy Opera Mini 4 had tens of thousands of downloads (or was that hundreds of thousands?).
You might as well ask what the point of making Chrome or Firefox was. IE is a decent browser today. Why bother with all those other browsers?
One browser does not fit all. Why do you think Firefox extensions are popular? Different people have different needs.
The standard Android browser doesn't even do compression! That makes it slow and expensive for those of us on a crappy connection.
I think you're missing the point.
The built in Android browser is great, but sometimes it can be slow and bogged down.
What's great about Opera Mini is the compression, it works a treat on EDGE networks, or just really poor HSDPA networks. It's also great for roaming as it'll reduce the cost of data and for people with really small data plans.
Opera Mini for Android isn't intended to replace the stock browser but to offer an alternative when it's required.
That's precisely the reason why I will continue to use Opera Mini on my handsets. I'm even planning on using Firefox's mobile browser as well on any future Android phones that I purchase to provide complete synchronization of my mobile and desktop web experiences.
Exactly. From what I've read, it actually renders the page remotely, and then sends a compressed version to the phone. In fact, I think it was on zdnet that I read that it is 5 to 6 times faster than default browsers on 3G networks
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It's simple. As a HTC Hero owner, I have noticed lots of apps on the market place that improves native Android apps.
That means if Opera is on the market in android, lots of people will try it. If they like it, they may move to it on a PC.
I'd be willing to bet that in a few months Opera share will go up a little.
It would seem to me that a primary reason to use Opera Mini is the reduced data usage as well as increased speed of the browser. That doesn't mean mini is great for everything, but in some cases the reduced BW translates to money saved and the speed is handy for things were you just want to quick load to look at an article or piece of data (especiallly on some websites that throw a milion graphics and ads that take considerable time to load). Sorry for the late post on this article.
