back to article Microsoft ropes in Opera Mini as default Nokia dumbphone browser

Opera will provide the browser for Microsoft's last dumbphones, under a new agreement between the two companies. Nokia's low-cost Asha devices and its feature phones currently use a proxy-based browser, Nokia Xpress, using Nokia's own servers. This will continue to work, but new devices will ship with Opera Mini, which uses …

  1. Shaha Alam
    Megaphone

    imagine what could've been...

    ...had they done something similar with Internet Explorer on the desktop, all those years ago.

  2. sorry, what?
    Devil

    MSN at the Opera

    Half of the stuff was already written by Muppets anyway.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-ityBg2b5A

    1. Lars Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: MSN at the Opera

      Opera Mini is free fast and very good. Used it on a Nokia for many years. Still available and developed for almost any phone. Norwegian chef not Swedish. Windows phone will loose nothing using it as long as they leave the code alone.

      1. Andrew Norton

        Re: MSN at the Opera

        you must be from Sweden then.

        Only in Sweden was he called the Norwegian Chef, everywhere else in the world he's the Swedish Chef

        1. Graham Dawson Silver badge

          Re: MSN at the Opera

          And I can confirm by proximity to my lovely wife that he sounds like a Swede. Well, he sounds like he's from Skåne, which is only Swedish because the Danes didn't want it any more.

          Poor Skåne...

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    As a very happy Windows Phone user, I feel sad to see Microsoft with no direction in the mobile markets...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      It's not that MS doesn't have direction for the mobile market, it's simple logic. Since they are canning 12000 employees, there goes support for the currently installed Nokia browser. Since they are doing away with these phones anyway, no need to try and "port" IE to them, more time and money wasted in the process and again, in support.

      Opera Mini fits the bill perfectly and has for a while. Put it on, let them support, hands washed, done.

  4. Bob Vistakin
    Headmaster

    Is this the new name for IE?

    "Opera". Has a great ring to it. Yup, that's definitely an improvement whichever way you look at it.

  5. h4rm0ny
    Pint

    Opera was the best browser there was for a while. It used to be my default choice. I was quite sad to see it become a Chrome wrapper - like the World needs fewer choices. :(

    Good to see it live on a little longer! I'm pretty sure Opera Mini is still its own thing.

    1. Arctic fox
      Unhappy

      @ h4rm0ny "Opera was the best browser there was for a while."

      Indeed it was. I was introduced to it by an old pal (an IT pro) many moons ago and it was indeed my default choice for a long time. Shame where they are now.

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Mini has problems with some Javascript, the "accept our terms" page on the network here won't work on mini.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Opera for dumb phones.

    IE for dumb users.

    1. h4rm0ny

      Fanboyism for trolls.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yeah, well

    I left Nokia Mobile Phones' proxy browser organization 2 weeks after the Microsoft purchase closed. It was becoming clear that MS was going to gut the organization totally, and sure enough it is doing that. They have already stopped all new development and are into "maintenance mode". All of my old colleagues (those still there) have dusted off their resumes and are looking for new positions. Sad. It was a great group of people to work with, and we were doing some good work.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge
      WTF?

      Re: Yeah, well

      Who downvotes a comment like that?

  8. DrXym

    Useful as a backup

    I have Opera Mini on my smartphone and I use it occasionally because some network and wifi hotspots have stupid filtering proxies which block sites. Since mini does its request/rendering somewhere in Opera-land it means I can bypass the filter.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Useful as a backup

      Careful - somebody in dear old blighty just got nicked for doing that sort of thing.

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/08/07/london_cops_close_down_site_arrest_suspect/

      1. DrXym

        Re: Useful as a backup

        The sites I visit aren't subject to blocking orders. I've had filters block me from humour websites because they're "adult", a History channel link about Nostradamus (said it was "occult") and other assorted examples of stupid filtering. It's simply a useful tool to have around to circumvent this sort of thing.

        Besides, it's not me running the proxy, it's Opera. These filters could block access to Opera's servers if they're paranoid of people doing an end run around their restrictions. And every other VPN for that matter. And Tor / Orbot. And all open proxies. And open DNS etc. And any and all forms of tunnelling invented or yet to be invented.

  9. pear

    SHould have been done years ago

    I use an 808 and the inbuilt browser is beyond woeful.

    opera mini provides an acceptable experience, except sometimes the links get messed up , you click on one hyperlink and it opens another on the page.

    1. J. R. Hartley

      Re: SHould have been done years ago

      I'm more of a 909 man myself.

      1. Slap

        Re: SHould have been done years ago

        Baboom tsk.

        Or should that be: unce unce unce unce ;)

        Bless Mr Roland.

  10. Random Q Hacker

    A mobile with battery life?

    That was the great thing about my old candy-bar Sony Ericsson with Opera: I could surf the web on it, AND the battery lasted for a week.

    Best phone ever would have an e-ink display, opera-mini, ebook reader, and a 2 week battery life!

  11. alwarming
    Big Brother

    Another night at the Opera.

    "We've always been a̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶r̶ friends with Eastasia"

  12. Bucky 2

    Fine solution for dumb phone

    I had a dumb phone with a tiny screen some years ago. Opera Mini really provided an excellent experience compared to the bundled browser. The bundled browser frequently had memory rendering pages with the limited resources available. Opera Mini was much better.

    The proper comparison here is with other dumb phone options.

  13. Shonko Kid
    Devil

    "Opera was the first company to introduce a proxy-based mobile browser"

    IIRC, No, they weren't. Indeed this was the whole premise of WAP proxies. They just stuck at it long enough for it to fly.

    My memory of those days is hazy at best, but ISTR at least two, non-WAP, companies offering a similar solution, before Opera-mini was launched. Names escape me though.

  14. RAMChYLD

    Ancient?

    I have it on my iPad and even specifically gotten it for my Blackberry Q5.

    If you live in a country where the mobile providers give you an unbelievably low quota (2GB a month for RM50) despite the package being advertised as "unlimited" and the throttled cap speed after the quota has run out is a paltry 64kbps, Opera Mini is a lifesaver.

  15. Dan 55 Silver badge

    Is Series 30 really canned?

    MS announced a dumbphone last week I think.

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