I am sure all of you have heard that Opera is giving aware free license's of Opera 8 until Midnight tonight(Pacific Time). If not head on over and grab yourself one, just don't go expecting to find a free version of their mobile browser.


In my opinion Opera is the best browser for Mobile Devices, but unless your phone come with it pre-installed it is going to set you back $19.95 to get a copy. While I am happy to dish out a few dollars for a great browser I think if they are going to give away licenses for every other OS, then they should include the mobile version as well!

In all the talks recently about designing for mobile devices it is easy to see that this area is heating up. But most mainstream users are not willing to dish out a few bucks to have a good browser on their phone. They are happy to stick with what comes pre-installed, but complain that the content/experience is lacking. Look at Flash Lite for instance, while it is not a browser it does enable users to play games, run applications, receive a great rich mobile experience, and get more out of their mobile phone. But it is still a struggle to convince people to part with the $10 it costs to have it on their phones. And from some of the recent discussions on the Flash Lite Yahoo Group even some developers don't get it.

While I understand these companies are in business to make money, and that in the mobile world everything costs money. But if we are expecting to see the mobile web grow into what people are predicting, and I am, we are going to have to provide people with the tools they need to access this content. While Opera probably accomplished their goal today of getting the browser onto a few more desktops, they failed on getting it onto the platform where they will experience the most growth. So next time Opera says they are giving away a free license of their web browser, please include the mobile platform.