"Our original goal with Opera Mini was to make the Web available to everyone, regardless of their network or mobile phone. Fifty million active monthly users is a great start,:" says Lars Boilesen (right) CEO, Opera. "Opera's innovative nature and its popularity among users will help us make the mobile Web even more accessible and attractive to more people across the world."

In just the past year, Opera Mini has seen unprecedented growth in every geographic location, with the number of users growing 150% from 20m monthly unique users in January 2009 to 50m monthly unique users in January 2010. These are not users who have just downloaded Opera Mini, but people who use the browser on an active basis, making it a market leader ahead of any other mobile browser.

Opera Mini light weight mobile browser offers server-side compression, shrinking Web pages by up to 90 % before loading them on the device, speeding up the browsing experience and also saving users a substantial amount of money on their data usage bills.

According to Gartner Inc, by 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide. With the speedy rise in the number of people browsing the Web from their mobile phone, users are picking the best software to surf the real Web on their devices. That statistic explains the exponential growth of Opera Mini in the last few months.

SIM only approach
Comparison site  says the same survey showed only a fifth of mobile phone users were aware that a SIM only contract can cut mobile phone tariffs by 50% compared to a handset inclusive deal.

Keeping their existing handsets or buying the phone they want independently in order to take out a SIM only contract, phone users not only significantly reduce their monthly tariffs costs, but also enjoy shorter contracts, as low as thirty days.  This gives the consumer greater flexibility to change suppliers as and when the best deals come onto the market. 

Richard Patterson, marketing director for Simonlyoffers.com says:  “SIM only deals have been available for around eighteen months, so are a relatively new concept.  However suppliers are doing everything they can to promote this type of deal so we think awareness will increase in the coming months as people get more used to hearing the term ‘SIM only’, and as the message about the benefits associated with SIM only contracts spreads.”

He continues:  “As mobile phones become more advanced, with even the cheaper models having more functionality than many people will ever use, there will be less need to upgrade a handset every eighteen months as is now the norm.
 
"This is likely to fuel a huge growth in SIM only contracts whilst having a negative impact on handset sales as consumers take advantage of cheaper tariffs and shorter contract lengths.”