Opera Mobile Store Opens: Cross-Platform Apps On The Go
Opera has launched its own app store, the Opera Mobile Store, for its Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers. Offering titles for Java, Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Android devices – though not, yet, iOS – the store is accessed by a new Speed Dial link in the apps and automatically filters by phone, location and currency.
Although it's Opera's name on the app store, it's Appia's tech behind it. In beta testing last month, the companies reckon over 15m users accessed the store, for a total of more than 700,000 downloads per day.
You can browse the catalog by visiting mobilestore.opera.com (even if you don't have Opera installed) and while the UI isn't exactly the most inspiring we've seen, there's a decent range of apps on offer. More details for developers here.
Press Release:
Opera launches the Opera Mobile Store, available in over 200 CountriesOslo, 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."