The boys at Opera’s have always had a somewhat hard stand on the S60 platform – as Nokia’s WebKit browser is an integral part of the OS, the N boys had a significant advantage.
Not unlike Microsoft, they could not resist the urge to abuse their position…Opera insiders told me about lovely acts like blocking their browser from accessing Flash Lite in the OS core of V3. The consequences of this behavior now materialize: while WM and UIQ (!!!) get betas of Opera 9, Opera 8 for S60 doesn’t even support the E90 as of this writing:
I personally think that Opera for S60 is a dieing concept – as the platform and core OS already contains a browser, the market is automatically made smaller by a order of magnitude. As Nokia is not watched by the FCC/xyz, their need to have a competitor is not very pronounced…which is bad for the boys with the O in their name…
What do you think?
P.S. I prefer Opera to S60 web as it has the better handling/usability…but most S60 users will probably never hear about it…
Related posts:
Opera Mini rules and is free!
Speed and size wise, rendering on the phone cannot yet compete with a proxy (therefor skyfire also sounds promising, though I haven’t tried it). I only use the build in browser when it is spawned from hyberlinks, attachments and file download. So missing out on Opera Mobile is no big loss for me.
Hi Palle,
the things I like about Opera Mobile is the tab support – while there once were a few builds of OPM with Tabs, they unfortunately weren’t released due to usability concerns…
As I am a heavy user, tab support is a must for me…
All the best
Tam Hanna
Tabs are nice. Would be nice to have in Opera mini too. But I manage without. The build in browser actually does handle tabs, but lacks a way to open a new tab manually. It can be tricked though, see http://mobile.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/How_to_Create_and_Use_Multiple_Browser_Windows_in_S60_Web.php
Hi Palle,
.
coming from a Treo 680, I had to do without tabs for ages
But its a thing which IMHO belongs into mobile web browsers of the future…
We can all wash our dishes and clothes by hand…but washers make the experience more comfortable…
All the best
Tam Hanna