ReadWriteWeb

I am not going to lie to you. I am a little distracted this week. You would be too if your favorite NFL team were in the Super Bowl. I am spending an inordinate amount of time reading about the Patriots and the Giants when I should, you know, be bringing you the top notch technology news and analysis that you have come to except from ReadWriteWeb.

Well, here is a story that satiates both needs. Mobile browser Opera Mini is predicting the winner of Super Bowl XLVI. By crunching aggregated anonymous traffic data, Opera Mini has correctly predicted the winners of five of the last six NFL playoff games. That is a lot better than the so-called sports experts. If you are betting on the game, maybe Opera is your new go-to source for inside info. What team does Opera have winning the big game?

Back in April when Opera Mini was released into the AppStore, as an iPhone user I naturally downloaded it and checked it out. Yes, some pages loaded faster, but navigating was choppy and there was no way to make it the default browser. These days I am lucky enough to have both an iPhone and an Android device - the latter of which saw an updated version of Opera hit the market today. So how does the new Opera mobile browser stack up to the competition and its predecessor? Check out the following video with a side-by-side comparison to find out.

Last night, Opera announced that its mobile browser, Opera Mini, had been accepted into the iTunes AppStore after being submitted just under three weeks ago. So, now that the iPhone finally has a browser alternative, how does it fare in comparison? Is it worth running out and getting or should we just stick with the safe old Safari and move on with our day?

If you've used Opera Mini for other mobile platforms, such as Blackberry or Android, then its pretty much the same. But, for those of you like myself that haven't, here's what we have to say about it.

In what seems like a bit of round about pressure on Apple to let Opera Mini into the App Store for the iPhone, Opera is announcing today that "Opera Mini is money".

The company said in its blog this morning that its mobile browser, Opera Mini, has generated more than $1.2 billion per year for mobile operators.

Opera just announced that it plans to bring its mobile browser, Opera Mini, to the iPhone. The Norwegian company will give the press and its partners a sneak peek of the application during next week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Opera Mini on the iPhone will include all of Opera's default features like Speed Dial, tabs and a password manager. Opera Mini for the iPhone will also feature Opera's compression technology, which compresses text and images on Opera's servers before they get sent to the phone. The question, however, is whether Apple will allow the application into the App Store.

The Opera Mini application is now considered not only the world's most popular mobile browser, but also the world's most downloaded app. According to independent applications marketplace GetJar, the browser has been downloaded more than 25 million times from its store. "The fact that Opera Mini is the most downloaded app on an open app store like GetJar makes us proud," said Opera's Chief Strategy Officer Rolf Assev. "It proves that our vision of providing a browser that works on almost all phones will give millions a better way to access the Web."

If you need any more proof of how fast the mobile web is growing, just look at the latest numbers coming out of Opera today. The company is reporting a 157% increase in usage of their Opera Mini web browser from March 2008 to March 2009. And the mobile web isn't just booming here in the Western world - it's also experiencing rapid growth in places like Latin America and Nigeria, too.