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It was just this past week that the New York Times announced that
Opera’s Mini Browser had been rejected from the App Store. Opera was rejected as it writes its own Java Interpreter, which the iPhone SDK Agreement does not allow as this competes with Apple’s own Safari Browser. This practice has prompted heavy criticism from some circles.
The accuracy of this report has now come into question. PC World Magazine article writer Daniel Ionescu, quotes an Opera executive as saying that the Opera Browser was never even submitted to Apple’s App Store. Opera executive, Mr. Odland, told Ionescu, "Opera has not yet submitted a version of Opera Mini to Apple's App Store, but may do so in the future."
This directly contradicts what Opera CEO Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner told the New York Times last week about Apple’s denial. The article in PC World, suggests that this contradiction is nothing more than an aimed "publicity stunt," and if this so it would be the first time that Apple's own policies of secrecy/control have been used against them.
Furthermore, a recent post on Macrumors features content from noted blogger and researcher, John Gruber, who concludes based on his findings that, “information from informed sources who do not wish to be identified because they were not authorized by their employers, is that Opera has developed an iPhone version of Opera Mini - but they haven't even submitted it to Apple, let alone had it be rejected.”
Gruber had previously thought that the browser had been rejected due to a built-in JavaScript interpreter, however he thinks this was incorrect. Gruber now says that Opera Mini does not contain such interpretive code. Gruber explains,
“In a nut, it works like this: You request a URL in Opera Mini. Opera Mini makes the request to a proxy server run by Opera. Opera's proxy server connects to the web server hosting the requested URL, and renders the page into an image. This image is then transmitted (in a proprietary format called OBML - Opera Binary Markup Language) to the Opera Mini client. Opera Mini displays the rendered image on screen. This may sound convoluted, but apparently the result is very effective – its faster to transmit, because only OBML (a compressed binary format) is transmitted to the mobile device over the phone network, and far faster to render on slow mobile processors.”
However, the current version of the Opera Mini for other platforms is coded with Java, along with BREW and this is against the terms of the SDK. For Opera Mini to be made available in an official sense, it would have to be ported to C/Objective-C.
Sources:
Opera Mini Not Rejected? [Updated] - Mac Rumors
Report: Opera's Claims of App Store Denial a "Publicity Stunt" || The iPod Observer - Now Playing
11-03-2008, 04:12 PM
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