Opera Wants to Bring Its Mobile Browser to iPhone

Opera Mini is a great mobile browser on most smartphones, but we didn’t really expect to see it on the iPhone. The reason for this is twofold: iPhone already sports Safari, which works really great, and second, Apple is unlikely to approve another browser, because it duplicates the functionality its app (Safari) already provides.

Despite this, Opera () has announced Opera Mini for the iPhone. At the official page, Opera sounds serious about it, treating is just like they would any other product launch.

“This is a unique opportunity to introduce the fast, feature-rich Opera Mini experience for the iPhone, and to showcase our latest beta releases of Opera Mobile and Opera Mini on other platforms and devices. Opera’s mission is to bring the Web to the world, and by making Opera Mini available on yet another platform, we are one step closer,” says Jon von Tetzchner, Opera’s co-founder.

The problem, however, is that this isn’t yet another product launch. As the folks at Opera themselves admit, “Opera Mini for iPhone is not publicly available,” and it’s quite possible that it never will be. Publicity stunt, a jab at Apple, or a serious intention to compete with Safari () on the iPhone sometime in the future? Time will tell.

Still, Opera plans to unveil several interesting products at the upcoming Mobile World Congress, which takes place in Barcelona from 15th to 18th of February. Visitors will be able to try out Opera Mobile 10 beta 3 on Symbian S60 () and Windows Mobile handsets, Opera Mobile 10 beta running on Android () handsets, Opera Mini 5 beta, running on a variety of handsets and platforms, and finally, Opera’s cross-platform Widgets Manager beta, running on Windows Mobile and S60 handsets.

By Stan Schroeder for http://mashable.com/