Updated Opera browsers to show off mobile payments and social networks at Barcelona

It was MWC 2010 when Opera first revealed its Mobile browser for Android smartphones. Opera Mobile and Opera Mini have since become one of the most popular third party browsers in the Android Market. Both will be the recipient of a major update to be announced in Barcelona for MWC 2012. In a statement, Opera notes that it has the highest market share among mobile browsers with more than 160 million active users per month and says that both Opera Mobile and Opera Mini will have new features that focus on the "social aspect of browsing". Opera says it also will be making an announcement about mobile payments which will "democratize the area by bringing it to not just smartphone users."

For those who are not familiar with the difference between the Opera Mobile and Opera Mini browser, the latter calls up the site you requested on one of Opera's servers first, which compresses it before sending it to your phone. This speeds up the time required to render a page by 2 to 3 times. As a result, users will consume less data than with the stock browser, and thus might save some money on data charges. Opera Mobile uses the phone's own software and hardware to render pages. Sites as still compressed to improve loading times and cut bandwidth use by as much as 80%.

Speaking of MWC 2012, we will be in Barcelona to bring you the most complete and up-to-date coverage. This year's expo begins on February 27th, so set your calendar accordingly.

source: Opera