The popular mobile browser Opera today launched a software developers kit (SDK) for widgets. While rival Apple's iPhone SDK requires that applications be distributed exclusively through the still-unlaunched iPhone App Store, pay a $99 application fee and wait - Opera SDK built widgets appear to be much more open and free.
Opera's widgets will be able to run on the company's wildly popular mobile browser, Opera Mini excluded, the desktop version of Opera, the Nintendo Wii and any other devices that run Opera 9.5. We covered the launch of 9.5 here.
How important is this battle, not just between Opera and Apple, but between a wide range of mobile platforms? As Josh Catone wrote here this morning, the key to beating Google may be beating Google on the mobile platform. This Opera SDK can also be seen in that light.
Opera differentiates itself by being highly standards compliant, cross platform and feature-rich. While not nearly as popular inside the US as it is internationally, the company's fans are many and outspoken.
Can freely developed and distributed widgets from Opera challenge the awesome wow-power of iPhone apps? As the initial shock of the iPhone interface wears off and an increasing number of rival handsets begin offering similar functionality, that may be possible. The delays in opening the iPhone App Store have already begun to frustrate developers, but the expected release of a 3G iPhone and a big subsidy driven price drop may extend Apple's lead by the time the App Store launches.
Below is a video released by Opera explaining the SDK. To see the video in greater detail click menu and select fullscreen.
Comments
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Right now, Google is like Microsoft. The company fights against all the other companies on the market. The mobile Internet is just in the beginning and Google is not a king of the game. I think Apple has a good chance to be a real winner in the competition at the moment, Google is like Microsoft with the real Internet.
Posted by: Luke | May 21, 2008 11:04 AM
iPhone apps are on one phone, Opera is on many. However iPhone apps are not limited to the application container that Opera resides. These widgets are nice and fun, but if Opera doesn't grow out of the application container, they are still limited. But that's not a small mountain to climb.
Posted by: Mogilny | May 21, 2008 1:13 PM
Opera 9.5 needs to hurry up and actually be available for sale.
Posted by: fr4nk | May 21, 2008 1:30 PM
Or, you could freely download the iPhone SDK and use the excellent Dashcode SDK and IDE to build "Widgets" for Safari, the iPhone, Opera, or any web browser you want, and not require any deployment license other then the web space you provide.
Not quite sure how Opera's announcement is anything relevant... All this stuff already exists from Google and Apple and is free, unlike your article portends
Posted by: Anonymous | May 21, 2008 1:52 PM
Actually, after watching the video, the IDE Apple includes in Dashcode blows away their development process.....
Posted by: Anonymous | May 21, 2008 1:56 PM
If you think this competes with the iPhone SDK, Opera got you drunk. If you are cynically mentioning the iPhone SDK for pageviews, touché!
Posted by: Tim F. | May 21, 2008 5:13 PM