In a move that is no different from what has happened to the Podcaster and Mailwrangler apps in the past, Apple has rejected the Opera Browser from the iPhone App Store.
Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, co-founder of Opera Software, the company behind the Opera Browsers, speaking with NY Times, said that Opera’s engineers have developed a version of Opera Mini that can run on an Apple iPhone, but Apple won’t let the company release it because it competes with Apple’s own Safari browser.
While Apple has been severely criticized by developers and the media for rejecting legitimate apps in the past, I’m not surprised with Apple’s decision this time. By now, it has been pretty clear that Apple clearly dislikes any competition on the iPhone with apps that compete, directly or indirectly, with Apple’s own creations. Though, as obvious as it may sound, John Gruber speculates that it may not necessarily be the case here. He goes on to say that the rejection might be due to Opera’s own Javascript Interpreter, though it certainly isn’t clear what might be the case.
All these rejections, however, make one thing certain. Apple does not wish to have any kind of app on the iPhone that competes with or tries to duplicate the functionality of Apple’s own apps on the iPhone.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
For Opera? I couldn’t care less about not being able to run Opera on my iPhone.
Safari is so integrated into the iPhone perhaps it is not surprising that it would be trouble for the enduser if another browser opened weblinks by default.
I can’t say I have ever wondered where Opera is on my iPhone… though it was necessary on my other mobile. But having more than one browser can get in the way of getting things done if you spend more time augmenting/integrating/syncing your browser than you do actually browsing.
Update (Nov 2nd, 2008):
John Gruber of Daring Fireball has done some more digging and is reporting that though the news that Opera had developed an iPhone version of Opera Mini was true, they haven’t submitted the iPhone app to Apple for it be rejected based on information from some informed sources.
See http://www.iphonehacks.com/2008/10/iphoneoperamini.html
^^ Mentioned in comment #3