Browser-on-the-go! New Opera Mini browser has features for frugal Indians

22nd February 2016
Browser-on-the-go! New Opera Mini browser has features  for frugal Indians
Bruce Lawson Deputy CTO, Opera was recently in India

The new Opera Mini browser will appeal to Indians  who work with  modest phones and slow Net connections
Bangalore, February 22 2016: Opera, the independent browser  from Norway,  has  a canny feel for the needs of the rest of us -- who don't own  fancy smart phones or sign up for blazingly fast  data plans, yet want to enjoy  videos on mobile  like everyone else  while  working  in our mother tongue.
The latest version of Opera Mini for Android,   supports 13 Indian languages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.  Downloads are steadier, faster -- though  if you want to cut your data usage to almost half,  when downloading  from sites like YouTube,  Gaana or Saavn, you might   additionally download the Opera Max  app, which uses  clever software to compress  audio or video streaming.
Most phones can read QR  or Quick Response code. With Opera you can also generate  the code,  so that  you can quickly share links with friends  without having to type long strings.
It is not widely known that  30% to 50% of the data we  consume,  is drained by things we never see -- apps running in the background with Facebook Messenger, Gmail, WhatsApp.  On phones, all this fetching and carrying costs us data- paise. Opera Max lets users cut the leakage   by sending Smart Alerts and pop -ups when  background usage is heavy. Max has quickly  gained 5 million users, most of them in India.
All this may be one reason why  almost all Indian handset brands including Lava, Karbonn, Intex, Celkon, and tablet makers like iBall,  include the Opera browser in their default menu.
In India last week to  better understand   desi  users and their browsing needs,   Opera's deputy  CTO,  Bruce Lawson,  points to one  big reason why frugal Indians  have embraced Opera Mini:  it takes up just 15 MB of space on your phone -- compared to 60+ MB of   some competitors.   Small is beautiful, samjhe!