Opera browser for iPad to 'appear' next week

Norway-based Opera Software ASA said a new version of its Opera Mini browser for Apple's iPad will appear at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week.

At the exhibition, the company is set to show latest versions of its Internet browsers that allow you to surf the Web from a mobile device.

The company also said new versions of the Opera Mini browser will appear on Android, iPhone, J2ME, BlackBerry and Symbian.

The Opera Mobile browser will not be left behind either, with the latest version for Android and Symbian making their debut, it said.

The company will not be officially introducing the browser in Barcelona, but merely previewing it, a report from theregister.co.uk said, quoting a company spokesman.

Opera chief executive Lars Boilesen says Opera Mini and Opera Mobile can help operators reduce the bandwidth that clogs their networks. A browser may never change the world, but we’ll never stop trying to, says Boilesen.

Opera Mini uses only a tenth of the bandwidth of other browsers, compressing Web pages by up to 90 percent, Opera says in its Web site.

In related news, the company also announced that 105 million people use an Opera browser each month on their mobile phones, with 90 million people using Opera Mini browser every month and about 15 million people using Opera Mobile.

Experts all have some date when they claim the mobile Web will overtake the PC web - we’re watching that transition now, says Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder of Opera Software.