Mobile Web Americas conference, Orlando: downloaded opera on a screen near you

Rating: hitting the top note

by Annie Turner

Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO of Opera,  is as aristocratic looking as he sounds, but speaks in a hugely empathetic way and you can’t help liking the company’s enterprising, independent spirit. So  20m people around the world have downloaded Opera Mini and are collectively racking up 1bn page hits per month - and this is the free version that has been downloaded, not that embedded on phones by operators. Cool, eh.

Jon also claims that more people in Bangladesh are using Opera Mini for Internet access than there are fixed lines in the country. Cool. Another example of a developing economy leapfrogging the rest of us?

We are all apparently spending more time browsing than watching TV. Am torn about whether or not this is a good or a bad thing. Your brain atrophies watching too much TV, but on the other hand you don’t get RSI from lying on the couch instead of using a laptop.

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