Opera offers free iPhone in competition to goad Apple

Paul Nesbitt

Opera Software has posted a 'countup' clock on its website displaying the time that has elapsed since it submitted its Opera Mini browser to Apple's App Store for approval.

Opera is also offering a free iPhone to the person who posts the best guess for Apple's approval time for its browser.

Behind the fun is a serious point. Apple has been widely criticised for the length of time it takes to approve certain iPhone apps for the App Store, as well for its controversial decisions not to approve third party apps, which it says duplicate the functions of Apple software already loaded on the iPhone.

Opera's browser is clearly a third party alternative to Apple's Safari browser on the iPhone. So far, no third-party browsers have been offered on Apple's App Store. It is this lack of competition, which some observers say will hurt the iPhone, and leave it saddled with mediocre software.

To make this point, Opera has posted a YouTube video showing how much faster Opera Mini is than Safari at downloading pages of the New York Times.