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Busy week for Opera, a transition to WebKit and a big acquisition. I wonder if the Skyfire purchase indicates Opera is going to make a far bigger push to try an

Busy week for Opera, a transition to WebKit and a big acquisition. I wonder if the Skyfire purchase indicates Opera is going to make a far bigger push to try and capture market share in mobile browsing, where at the moment there's far fewer competitors and an ever increasing marketshare to tap into.

rplnt 14y ago
Mobile can be way to capture desktop too. If you decide to use Opera on mobile, sync (Opera Link - http://www.opera.com/link/ http://www.opera.com/link/ ) can convince you to use it on desktop as well. I would especially love having sessions accessible on both devices. I believe it's not possible at the moment.
- nicholassmith 14y ago
  Nice point! That'd certainly have a draw for a lot of people, and I don't believe people have as much invested in their browser choice than they used too.
otoburb 14y ago
From the Opera press release[1]: "Both companies have evolved far beyond their browser roots. Skyfire adds capabilities to our portfolio around video, app optimization, smartphones and tablets, and strength in North America. With video expected to consume over two-thirds of global mobile bandwidth by 2015, and as time spent on Android and iOS apps explodes, we are excited to extend Opera’s solutions for operators.” In short, you are correct that Opera will continue on their long-standing mission to capture more mobile browsing market share, however the acquisition announcement indicates that they see money in beefing up their non-browser product offerings. The main reason is revenue: SkyFire is a relatively new company to the mobile carrier space, with three confirmed customers and on-going trials at ten others[2]. Opera has OEM connections and a long history in the mobile carrier industry, since they were originally spun off from Telenor R&D[3]. I speculate that Opera has been looking at ways to increase revenue over the years beyond licensing their mobile browser. Whether they're hitting an organic limit (diminishing returns) to their mobile browser adoption, or whether they feel that it's time to diversify their revenue streams, this is a good play for them because SkyFire brings a compelling platform to the table with a different set of customers that they understand. Here are my informal notes on Opera's strategy w.r.t. to SkyFire: 1) WebRTC - Opera is one of the sponsoring entities for WebRTC. They've thrown in their chips so that their R&D efforts can be complimentary and hopefully faster. 2) Video end-to-end - Opera wants to play in the mobile operator space as a solution provider, and video is a hot and inevitable trend. They want to leverage client standards based work AND a backend play (SkyFire acquisition). New revenue stream if operators buy/subscribe to the SkyFire solution. 3) Browser adoption - Nothing new here; executing on their original strategy but now with hopefully more support from other areas of the ecosystem to make their mobile browser more attractive over others. (Disclaimer: I work for a company offering video optimization solution. Opera is now one of my competitors as SkyFire was before.) [1] http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2013/02/15/ http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2013/02/15/ [2] Ibid. [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telenor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telenor

rplnt 14y ago

Mobile can be way to capture desktop too. If you decide to use Opera on mobile, sync (Opera Link - http://www.opera.com/link/ http://www.opera.com/link/ ) can convince you to use it on desktop as well. I would especially love having sessions accessible on both devices. I believe it's not possible at the moment.

nicholassmith 14y ago
Nice point! That'd certainly have a draw for a lot of people, and I don't believe people have as much invested in their browser choice than they used too.

otoburb 14y ago

From the Opera press release[1]: "Both companies have evolved far beyond their browser roots. Skyfire adds capabilities to our portfolio around video, app optimization, smartphones and tablets, and strength in North America. With video expected to consume over two-thirds of global mobile bandwidth by 2015, and as time spent on Android and iOS apps explodes, we are excited to extend Opera’s solutions for operators.” In short, you are correct that Opera will continue on their long-standing mission to capture more mobile browsing market share, however the acquisition announcement indicates that they see money in beefing up their non-browser product offerings. The main reason is revenue: SkyFire is a relatively new company to the mobile carrier space, with three confirmed customers and on-going trials at ten others[2]. Opera has OEM connections and a long history in the mobile carrier industry, since they were originally spun off from Telenor R&D[3]. I speculate that Opera has been looking at ways to increase revenue over the years beyond licensing their mobile browser. Whether they're hitting an organic limit (diminishing returns) to their mobile browser adoption, or whether they feel that it's time to diversify their revenue streams, this is a good play for them because SkyFire brings a compelling platform to the table with a different set of customers that they understand. Here are my informal notes on Opera's strategy w.r.t. to SkyFire: 1) WebRTC - Opera is one of the sponsoring entities for WebRTC. They've thrown in their chips so that their R&D efforts can be complimentary and hopefully faster. 2) Video end-to-end - Opera wants to play in the mobile operator space as a solution provider, and video is a hot and inevitable trend. They want to leverage client standards based work AND a backend play (SkyFire acquisition). New revenue stream if operators buy/subscribe to the SkyFire solution. 3) Browser adoption - Nothing new here; executing on their original strategy but now with hopefully more support from other areas of the ecosystem to make their mobile browser more attractive over others. (Disclaimer: I work for a company offering video optimization solution. Opera is now one of my competitors as SkyFire was before.) [1] http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2013/02/15/ http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2013/02/15/ [2] Ibid. [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telenor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telenor