Opera 10 Slated For September 1 Launch. Will Anyone Take Notice?

That other browser maker, Opera Software, has just released Opera 10 RC1 to the masses and has announced it will be debuting the final version of its upgraded desktop browser next week on September 1. You can download the release candidate and get more information right here.

Opera 10, formerly codenamed Peregrine, will feature an improved user interface, increased web standards support, bug fixes, performance improvements, and new tools for web developers. Opera 10 Final will also include Opera Turbo, the new bandwidth-booster for slow Internet connections, and a revamped Opera Mail, its built-in e-mail client. Also worth testing when it comes out: Opera claims the next version of its desktop browser will be significantly faster on resource intensive pages such as Gmail and Facebook, deeming it more than 40% faster overall than Opera 9.6.

The question is: how many people will actually experience any of that?

The Opera desktop browser, contrary to its mobile sister, hasn’t exactly been adopted like crazy since its initial release back in 1996, even if it has been known to innovate the browser field with several useful new features over the years that nearly always end up in competing web browsers shortly after introduction. As of July 2009, usage data on English-language sites show Opera’s share of the browser market as being 1.97%.

For comparison, according to Net Applications the July data shows Internet Explorer still leading with a 67.68% share of the browser market, followed by Firefox (22.47%), Safari (4.07%) and Google Chrome (2.59%).

Also, I’m not really sure what to make of this: