Opera and Microsoft spread wider mobile net

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Opera and Microsoft spread wider mobile net

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 19 March, 2009

READ MORE: Microsoft

The spotlight has been on new generation smartphone software from Apple and others this week, but more established mobile web players are biting back. Opera has announced its Turbo technology, for enhancing browser performance on smartphones and netbooks, while Microsoft will be releasing the mobile version of Silverlight, its challenger to Adobe Flash, within weeks.

Opera Turbo has been released for limited testing, claiming it can improve browser speeds fourfold by sending pages to the Opera servers first, for compression of up to 80%. This is a solution for users with slow network connections (around 100Kbps) - there is considerable trade-off for the compression, in terms of image resolution - and so fits with Opera's recent strategy of targeting emerging markets. It is looking to spread its tentacles into new user bases and lower end webphones, as the browser competition on smartphones heats up, and even long time Opera partners like Nokia look to create their own high end products.

Opera says the product is not just for emerging markets, since 100Kbps speeds are also common on 3G networks or busy Wi-Fi hotspots, and in cars, so netbooks are also a key target.

Microsoft is also looking at how to shrink down the PC rich web experience so it is usable on a cellphone and a sub-megabit connection. Silverlight for Mobile, expected this quarter, will remove capabilities from the desktop product, probably including the DeepZoom feature.

This week saw the first beta of Silverlight 3 demonstrated, with 50 new features, notably the

ability to run applications outside the browser and more high definition video features (some of those prime candidates to be excluded from the mobile version).