Opera Mobile Store was a platform-independent browser-based

app store An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...

for mobile-phone owners and a digital application

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations *Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a varia ...

platform used by more than 40,000 developers. It is owned and maintained by

Opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

. Launched by a third-party provider in March 2011, the Opera Mobile Store was relaunched on a new platform, after acquisition of Handster, a mobile app store platform company, in January 2012. The service allows users to browse and download

applications Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a ...

for over 7,500 different devices on Android,

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

BlackBerry OS BlackBerry OS is a discontinued proprietary mobile operating system developed by Canadian company Research In Motion (now BlackBerry Limited) for its BlackBerry line of smartphone handheld devices. The operating system provides multitasking ...

Symbian Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian OS ...

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

, and

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDA). Designed to be the portable equivalent of the Windows desktop OS in the emerging Mobile device, mobile/port ...

. Opera Mobile Store has than 1 million app downloads a day and is accessible from any mobile phone via a bookmark or the Start Page of Opera Mini or Opera Mobile browsers. The store is also accessible from any other browser, including desktop versions, and on any

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

, from https://apps.opera.com/. The Opera Mobile Store then forwards the user to the country-specific store based on the location information provided by the mobile carrier or ISP. Over 86% of the applications for Android-powered phones provided by the Opera Mobile Store are free of charge. The average free-vs.-paid-apps ratio for all platforms is 70% and 30%, respectively. These applications are generally targeted on a particular category, including

video games A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

, business applications,

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

apps,

e-books An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. A ...

, and others.

History

On March 8, 2011, Opera Software announced the launch of Opera Mobile Store powered by third-party provider. On September 19, 2011, Opera Software acquired app store platform company Handster, which was the leading independent applications store for Android market at that time. Following the acquisition of Handster, Opera Software made a major overhaul since the Opera Mobile Store launch. Opera Software announced a revamped Opera Mobile Store with improved distribution and

monetization Monetization ( also spelled monetisation in the UK) is, broadly speaking, the process of converting something into money. The term has a broad range of uses. In banking, the term refers to the process of converting or establishing something into ...

capabilities for developers, and better customization for white-label marketplaces at the

Mobile World Congress MWC Barcelona (formerly but still commonly referred to as Mobile World Congress) is an annual trade show dedicated to the mobile communications industry. The event is held in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain, at the Fira de Barcelona Gran ...

in Barcelona on February 27, 2012. In July 2013, developers can now upload apps to both the

Yandex Yandex LLC ( rus, Яндекс, r=Yandeks, p=ˈjandəks) is a Russian technology company that provides Internet-related products and services including a web browser, search engine, cloud computing, web mapping, online food ordering, streaming ...

Store and the Opera Mobile Store simultaneously, as a result of agreements between the two companies. On November 18, 2014,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

and

Opera Software Opera (formerly Opera Software AS) is a Norwegian multinational technology corporation headquartered in Oslo, Norway with additional offices in European Union, Europe, China, and Africa. Opera offers a range of products and services that inclu ...

have signed an agreement to replace Nokia Store with the Opera Mobile Store as the default app store for Nokia feature phones, Symbian and Nokia X smartphones. The process of migrating customers from Nokia Store to Opera Mobile Store is expected to be complete in the first half of 2015, at which point Nokia Store will be closed.

Number of downloaded applications

As stated in the official Opera Software press-release, by February 27, 2012, Opera Mobile Store reached more than 30 million monthly app store visits and over 45 million monthly app downloads. Number of apps in the store has tripled over the year 2013, while the number of monthly visitors to the Opera's app distribution platform grew to 75 million in October, 2013. At the end of Q4 2013 Opera Software announced that it has reached a new milestone — 105 million monthly visitors. That is a 172% increase in a year since the close of 2012. The top-three countries in 2013 based on the number of Opera Mobile Store users were

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. By November, 2014 Opera's app store started to offer close to 300,000 mobile apps and games across most mobile platforms. Earlier, in early 2014 the mobile store offered over 200,000 apps significant growth in the number of apps available.

Most popular apps

Top 100 apps lists are compiled separately for each country with an Opera Mobile Store presence. The lists feature 17 categories, ranging from business apps to games for every platform supported by the Opera Mobile Store, consisting of the most popular apps among the store users in the selected category.

Application ratings

Currently, the Opera Mobile Store does not rate applications; instead, the OMS team ether accepts apps submitted for inclusion into the store or rejects them, based on whether their content is appropriate for a wide age group, and keeping objectionable apps out of the store.

App submission process

Opera Mobile Store does not charge developers for joining mobile store's distribution program and publishing apps. Developers get 70% of net revenue from sales of paid apps for Android accepted into the Opera Mobile Store, and 50% of net revenue for Java apps.

App approval process

Applications are subject to approval by Opera Mobile Store team for basic reliability testing on all the platforms and devices declared by developer in submission process. Opera Mobile Store does not accept adult and sexual content.

Opera Top App Awards

Every year Opera Mobile Store runs Top Apps Awards. These awards recognize the best apps in the Opera Mobile Store across multiple categories based on popular user voting.

Partnerships

In 2013 Opera Mobile Store signed a cross-app store distribution partnership with

, the largest search engine in the Russian-speaking Internet market and the leading search engine in Eastern Europe, based on audience reach. This agreement allows apps in the Opera Mobile Store also to be available for download in the Yandex app store and vice versa. The same year Opera Software signed several more partnership agreements with mobile carriers in Eastern Europe. Both MTS Belarus and MTS Ukraine launched Opera co-branded app stores for their 28 million total user base.

Opera Subscription Mobile Store

Starting July 21, 2014

started to offer service that provides mobile carriers' customers with unlimited access to premium games and apps catalogue built on the Opera Mobile Store technology and supported by the OMS team. The first carrier to implement app store subscription model for their customers was MTS Russia that launched App Market service together with Opera. In this model mobile users pay a weekly subscription fee for "all-you-can-eat" access after a free seven-day trial period. During 2014 Opera Software launched subscription mobile stores with MTS Russia, MTS Ukraine, MTS Belarus, TIM Brasil and XL Axiata in Indonesia.

One Platform Foundation

In May 2013 Opera and

announced together with SlideME and CodeNgo the launch and provided support for a new

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

One Platform Foundation (OPF) initiative, enabling developers to easily code and submit their apps across multiple alternative app stores.

Similar services

References

External links

Official website

Official Opera Mobile Store developer site

Software distribution agreement

Opera Mobile Store team's official blog

Opera Mobile Store: From the Browser Veterans
{{Software digital distribution platforms Mobile software distribution platforms