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Opera Software said Monday that Nokia, the world's biggest cell phone maker, is installing the small Norwegian company's Internet browser on a mass market phone for the first time.
Though popular among a growing number of tech-savvy computer users, the Opera browser is a distant third in the market compared with Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.
"Nokia, of course, is very important to us," company co-founder and president Jon S. von Tetzchner told The Associated Press, noting Opera also recently provided its browser for phones being designed by Sony Ericsson and Motorola as well.
The new mid-range 6600 series Nokia phone offers full Internet access, rather than being limited to less abundant Web pages formatted in the wireless application protocol, or WAP, language. The tri-band phone will work worldwide, Nokia said.
Nokia already features the Opera browser on its high-end 9210i handset, which runs on an operating system from Symbian, a joint venture between Psion, Ericsson, Nokia, and Matsushita.
Opera is also working with Symbian, which is competing a with a handful of mobile operating systems including Microsoft's Mobile Windows, Palm and Linux.
Since Opera's software requires less memory than browsers made by Microsoft and Netscape, it can fit more functions into mobile phones and still offer full-scale Web browsing of standard Internet pages, the Oslo-base company contends.
Many cell phones already offer some browsing capability through the WAP system, which redraws Web pages into a specific format. Most site operators can't afford to do that, leaving access to content spare.
"Even if there were tens or hundreds of thousands of WAP pages, it could still not match the Internet," said von Tetzchner. He predicted the use of wireless Internet browsers would surpass WAP use within a few years.
Von Tetzchner also said users would be more likely to access the Internet from their mobile phones if the process was like using their home computers.
"People don't want to learn a new technology. They're used to the Internet," he said.
Opera started out as a research project for Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor ASA in 1994. It split off into an independent Oslo-based company in 1995.
Though popular among a growing number of tech-savvy computer users, the Opera browser is a distant third in the market compared with Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.
"Nokia, of course, is very important to us," company co-founder and president Jon S. von Tetzchner told The Associated Press, noting Opera also recently provided its browser for phones being designed by Sony Ericsson and Motorola as well.
The new mid-range 6600 series Nokia phone offers full Internet access, rather than being limited to less abundant Web pages formatted in the wireless application protocol, or WAP, language. The tri-band phone will work worldwide, Nokia said.
Nokia already features the Opera browser on its high-end 9210i handset, which runs on an operating system from Symbian, a joint venture between Psion, Ericsson, Nokia, and Matsushita.
Opera is also working with Symbian, which is competing a with a handful of mobile operating systems including Microsoft's Mobile Windows, Palm and Linux.
Since Opera's software requires less memory than browsers made by Microsoft and Netscape, it can fit more functions into mobile phones and still offer full-scale Web browsing of standard Internet pages, the Oslo-base company contends.
Many cell phones already offer some browsing capability through the WAP system, which redraws Web pages into a specific format. Most site operators can't afford to do that, leaving access to content spare.
"Even if there were tens or hundreds of thousands of WAP pages, it could still not match the Internet," said von Tetzchner. He predicted the use of wireless Internet browsers would surpass WAP use within a few years.
Von Tetzchner also said users would be more likely to access the Internet from their mobile phones if the process was like using their home computers.
"People don't want to learn a new technology. They're used to the Internet," he said.
Opera started out as a research project for Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor ASA in 1994. It split off into an independent Oslo-based company in 1995.