T-Mobile to Offer Opera Mini in Europe
by BetaNews Staff
T-Mobile will soon begin including Opera's mobile Web browser on several of its phones in the European market. The first handsets with Opera Mini would launch beginning this month, with additional models coming later in the year. The carrier would be the first to install a customized version of the browser on its handsets, with the Sony Ericsson K608i, Motorola V3/V3i and Nokia 6280 featuring Opera Mini.
Opera says the company's move allows full Web access on many phones that were previously only capable of WAP browsing. Mobile Web capabilities have been lucrative for T-Mobile; shipping a Web browser on its most popular phones has increased data revenues by 40 percent. The company sold 400,000 of the so-called 'Web and walk' devices last year.
Some browsers are better than others, but on a small device, does it really matter? You aren't going to notice the difference anyway. Bandwidth is what we need, not measley software that isn't going to make a blip of difference.
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I totally disagree. You cannot rely on companies to make 'small rendering' versions of content - you have to rely on your browser to make the experience rewarding on that small of a screen. That requires experience and a rich codebase designed to work in what is essentially an "accessibility" environment. It is TRULY amazing that Opera can intelligently scale down full sized content (not just shrink) and make even full pages totally usable on a cell phone.
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