Opera Mobile coming to Android within a month, bearing hardware acceleration and pinch-to-zoom
Forget all that Mini stuff, Opera is bringing its full-flavored mobile browser to Android some time very soon indeed. To tempt people on board, the new software will support hardware acceleration …
Context & Ripple Effects
Opera first signaled its Android plans in 2009 with an Android version said to be in development. The launch timetable turns that long-running plan into a near-term distribution move as Android's share of U.S. mobile web browsing and smartphone sales was reported to be rising in 2010.
The distinction matters because Opera is positioning its full browser, rather than Mini, around phone-native interaction and rendering features. That gives Opera a product aimed at Android users whose device capabilities can support hardware acceleration and pinch-to-zoom.
First-order effects
- Android users gain an impending full Opera Mobile alternative with hardware acceleration and pinch-to-zoom, rather than being limited to Opera Mini's lighter-weight approach.
- Opera Mobile broadens Opera's addressable Android audience by offering a browser positioned for richer on-device use.
Second-order effects
- Android browser vendors face added pressure to compete on responsiveness and touch interaction, not merely basic access to the web.
- Opera must differentiate Mini and Opera Mobile clearly on Android, since the two products address overlapping users with different performance and feature trade-offs.
Third-order effects
- As Android expands, browser distribution becomes a more important route for independent software vendors to reach smartphone users without controlling the handset operating system.
- The move points toward competition between mobile browsers increasingly centered on using handset hardware for desktop-like browsing interactions, rather than on lightweight proxy-style delivery alone.
The trend: Android's growth is drawing established mobile software vendors toward full-featured native products tailored to increasingly capable smartphones.