YouTube video courtesy of operasoftware

Most people have never heard of the Opera desktop browser. And, yet it has been the source of many browser innovations that we now take for granted: Tabbed windows, mouse gestures, and start windows filled with thumbnails of frequently visited sites all come from Opera as far as I can tell. Despite this, Opera never gained much desktop marketshare despite some good buzz at the beginning of this decade. Similarly, the high-end mobile browser, Opera Mobile, never gained much traction either despite the fact that it may have been the most complete mobile browser for years (even before the iPhone). I attribute this to their charging a fee for this browser (their lower end Opera mini has always been free). It looks like this has changed though. Opera Mobile 9.7 Beta for Windows Mobile has been available for free for a while now. And, now Opera Mobile 10 Beta for Nokia S60 phones is also free...

Mobile browsing revolution: now available for Nokia smartphones

Earlier beta releases were also free but production releases required payment. There doesn't seem to be any indication that the production releases of the current beta releases will be for-fee products. If Opera wants to gain traction in a world where all smartphone already come with a browser, they need to keep their product free to even hope to attract users.

You can find Opera Mobile 10 Beta for Nokia S60 phones by pointing your S60 mobile browser at:

http://m.opera.com/mobile/