Amazon is set to be launching its own little Market for Android sometime this month, but Opera just flinched first, flipping the switch on the Opera Mobile Store. It's an online clearinghouse for apps available for "virtually any mobile platform and device" -- which right now covers Android, BlackBerry, Palm, Symbian, Windows Mobile, and good 'ol Java. (iOS is notably absent, but supposedly coming with links back to the App Store.) Apps are provided by Appia with the vast majority costing nothing. The vast majority are also junk, but such is the case in most app stores. It's online now, featured in the Speed Dial on the many and various mobile flavors of the Opera browser, meaning you're just a tap or two away from getting MySpace profile pics on all your contacts. It honestly doesn't get much more compelling than that.
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Opera launches the Opera Mobile Store, available in over 200 Countries
Oslo, Norway – March 8, 2011
Opera Software, the leading provider of mobile browsers around the world, today announced that the Opera Mobile Store is now open and available at mobilestore.opera.com. This storefront is a featured Speed Dial link in the Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers, which makes the storefront immediately accessible by more than 100 million people who use an Opera browser on their mobile phones. The Opera Mobile Store has been built and delivered through a strategic partnership with Appia, the leading provider of open application marketplace technology. The Opera Mobile Store offers both free and paid applications for virtually any mobile platform and device. The Opera Mobile Store is available to Opera users and users of other mobile browsers, on all popular mobile phone platforms in more than 200 countries. The Opera Mobile Store uses Appia's storefront commerce technology and leverages a wide catalog of applications for phones with Java, Symbian, BlackBerry and Android operating systems. The storefront experience is customized to each user's phone, providing a tailored catalog based on the phone's operating system, local language and currency.
"The launch of the Opera Mobile Store supports Opera's core belief in an open, cross-platform mobile Internet experience by providing Opera users with an integrated storefront of mobile applications," said Mahi de Silva, EVP, Consumer Mobile, Opera Software. "Our partnership with Appia delivers to all Opera Mobile and Opera Mini users easy access to a wide variety of great content, on any device, all over the world."
To support the Opera Mobile Store, Opera Software has also launched the Opera Publisher Portal, providing developers with an easy way to get their applications onto the Opera Mobile Store and in front of millions of Opera users every month. In its pre-launch state, the Opera Mobile Store attracted more than 15 million users in February, from 200 countries, achieving more than 700,000 downloads per day. These metrics establish the Opera Mobile Store as a top 10 mobile application store around the world.
"The Opera Mobile Store presents a remarkable opportunity for mobile application developers to distribute localized content through a single, far-reaching marketplace," said Jud Bowman, CEO of Appia. "Appia is thrilled to partner with Opera to deliver an incredible storefront of applications to Opera users and beyond."
About Appia
Appia is the world's largest open app marketplace and white label storefront platform, supporting all operating systems and handsets. Today, Appia powers app storefronts for more than 40 partners reaching more than 200 million mobile subscribers in 200 countries and counting. Customers include four of the world's top five handset manufacturers, three of the top four mobile operators in the US and three of the top ten mobile operators globally including Samsung, Opera, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon Wireless. The Appia Developer Program provides partners with a ready to launch catalog of over 140,000 paid and free apps from more than 30,000 global application developers. Appia is headquartered in Durham, NC with offices in Dallas, TX, and Munich, Germany. For more information, visit www.appia.com, or follow @Appia.
About Opera Software ASA
Opera Software ASA has redefined web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera's cross-platform web-browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at http://www.opera.com/.
