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!
