Opera, the little browser that can...

[A Guy]

Time to stop laughing: Opera hits 50M users on desktop, over 100M total

Ardent supporters of other browsers love to poke fun at Opera when the opportunities arise. After today's press release from the company, I'm guessing their take on things is "go ahead and laugh, we're still kicking ass."

Opera has announced that their user base has surpassed 100 million users. That figure includes both Opera's desktop and mobile users, with each group accounting for about 50% of the total. Oh, and that doesn't include all the users Opera has on gaming consoles.

From March 2009 to March 2010, Opera's year-on-year growth was more than 30%. And while their share of the desktop browser market is probably still a bit shy of 2.5%, it's pretty obvious that they're moving in the right direction. The EU Browser Ballot screen has certainly helped, but their growth has just as much to do with delivering a better piece of software -- Opera 10.5 turned a lot of heads when it debuted the Carakan JavaScript engine and threw down the gauntlet at Google Chrome.

So, congratulations to the crew at Opera -- and here's hoping whatever they have planned next is just as big a leap as 10.5!

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/04/12/time-to-stop-laughing-opera-hits-50m-users-on-desktop-over-100/


Opera Browser Surpasses 50 Million Desktop Users

The Opera web browser was always the underdog in the web browser world. First it was Internet Explorer and Netscape battling it out and then later on Internet Explorer and Firefox. Opera was always a solid alternative that had a very loyal user base. The situation does not seem to have changed by much in 2010 with the exception that Webkit based browsers have been introduced as additional competitors.

Opera Software today announced in a press release that the desktop version of the Opera browser has surpassed the 50 million unique user mark in March 2010 and that an additional 50 million where using a mobile version of the browser.

That’s an increase of over 30% from last year’’s desktop user share which can be partly attributed to the browser ballot screen but also to the improvements made in that time.

The Opera developers released one of the fastest web browsers in March 2010 with Opera 10.50 which has not only been improved speed and performance wise but also functionality wise with new or improved feature additions like Opera Turbo and Opera Unite.

How is that figure comparing to the market share of other web browsers? Firefox 3.6 for instance has been downloaded more than 390 million times since its introduction. Downloads on the other hand do not equate active users. Still that figure alone shows that Firefox is currently playing in another league.

It might be easier to compare that figure with the Google chrome browser. Google Chrome had, back in November of 2009, a user base of 30 million, based on an article over at Techcrunch, a figure that likely increased quite a bit in the last six months. Some websites refuted those stats back then and claimed that the user base was larger or unreliable.

The most interesting figure is the 30% increase in a 12 month period which should give Opera enough momentum to continue to extend their browser market share. Congratulations Opera from the ghacks team.

[url=http://www.ghacks.net/2010/04/12/opera-browser-surpassed-50-million-desktop-user-mark/]Opera Browser Surpasses 50 Million Desktop Users

A Guy

[sujay]

Opera is the most featureful browser. But not versatile like Mozilla. As still it can't support add-ons.
It used to be slower, but 10.5 version is fast..

[sreeparna]

I am very happy with my firefox .There are so many addons.You can have an addon for almost everything you need.No browser has yet achieved that much versatility in addon support.

[sujay]

That's true...
But one thing to remember. Too many addons slow down Firefox.

[safeguy]

I am very happy with my firefox .There are so many addons.You can have an addon for almost everything you need.No browser has yet achieved that much versatility in addon support.

I agree - but if Opera and Google Chrome can 'catch up' with Firefox in terms of add-ons support, it will be a real interesting browser war.

[sujay]

I think chrome will be the first to 'catch up'. It already supports few 'extensions'.

[sreeparna]

I think chrome will be the first to 'catch up'. It already supports few 'extensions'.

Yah Chrome has a decent no of addons already despite the fact that they are new in the field.Chrome is a lot faster than firefox too.I would have used Chrome if they have addon support for a good password manager like roboform.

[sujay]

sreeparna you can use LastPass.
I think it is well known. Although I don't use password manager...:P

[sreeparna]

sreeparna you can use LastPass.
I think it is well known. Although I don't use password manager...:P

Yah I know about Lastpass.But I dont like the idea of storing my passwords into their server.I like it the way Roboform does.My passwords are encrypted in my own machines.That is how I like to use it.

[sujay]

Oh!! thanks for letting me know that. I thought all password manager does that.. i.e. stores password in their server.