Surprise, Surprise: Opera Mini iPhone App Gets Apple's Stamp Of Approval

Good news for Opera (and its legions of fans around the world): the company has just announced that its mobile browser Opera Mini has been approved for iPhone and iPod touch on the App Store.

The app will be available as a free download within 24 hours, depending on which market you are located in.

The iPhone app was shown off by the Norwegian software company to a small circle of reporters at the most recent Mobile World Congress (us included).

Opera then officially submitted Opera Mini for iPhone to the Apple App Store on March 23, when we wondered out loud if it would ever be approved.

The answer to that question is yes, contrary to what many believed would happen. I guess they can take that counter down now.

Opera Software claims Opera Mini for iPhone is up to 6 times faster than the native browser thanks to its compression and server-side rendering technology, based on internal tests, and after having tried it at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona myself I have to say it’s definitely zooming.

When the app was first submitted to Apple for approval, Opera told me that they had analyzed the App Store policies in great detail, and that they were completely certain of being 100% compliant – looks like they were right.

Earlier today, Opera disclosed that it now counts over 100 million users, about half of which are using its mobile browser products. The company also offers Opera Mini 5 beta for Android phones.

The iPhone app is already showing up for me here in Belgium, how about where you’re located?

(Source: press release)