Opera Software and Freedom Media announce world's first mobile AJAX application using Opera Platform

JavaScriptSearch
Monday, February 20, 2006; 01:26 PM

Opera Software, a global leader in Web browser technologies, and Freedom Media, an independent, consumer-oriented information- and service provider, today announced the world's first mobile widget application based on Opera Software's mobile AJAX authoring environment, Opera Platform™. Named “Freedom”, the application offers a collection of mobile pay-per-view services designed to increase the usability of mobile Web based services by offering a suite of widgets such as news, real-time stock prices and maps, all through a rich user interface.

Opera Software is demonstrating the Freedom application at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona this week, at Opera's stand in Hall 2, E36/37.

“Freedom is a great demonstration of how the Opera Platform™ mobile AJAX authoring environment can help operators, handset manufacturers or content providers create compelling user-oriented premium services that are not hindered by the limitations of WAP and GSM/GPRS data transfer speeds,” says Timo Bruns, EVP Mobile, Opera Software. “AJAX has become very popular on the Mac/PC platform, and it makes even more sense in the mobile space as it enables the creation of Web based services that are so fast they seem like local applications.”

The Opera Platform™ Software Development Kit (SDK) sparked the interest of mobile content providers, mobile analysts and Web developers worldwide when the beta version was released on November 15, 2005. Opera Platform™ allows developers to create platform independent applications based on well known Web technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Together with XMLHttpRequest, the combination of these technologies is popularly referred to as AJAX. AJAX is a Web development technique that is increasingly used to develop new Internet services such as Google Maps and Amazon A9 Search. Opera Platform™ enables these types of rich Web applications to be developed and used on mobile phones. In addition, Developers can easily adapt existing content and Web applications to run on mobile phones using Opera Platform™.

“Using Opera Platform™ was the natural choice for us when developing the Freedom application” says Frank Rigal, CEO, Freedom Media. “With the Opera Platform™ Software Development Kit (SDK) we could quickly create a platform-independent mobile widget solution using open-standard Web technologies instead of native code for the different mobile platforms.„

Availability

At this stage, Freedom will be pre-installed on selected Nokia phones in the Norwegian market, and it will also be available as a free download for Norwegian Nokia S60 mobile owners.

About Opera Software ASA

Opera Software ASA is an industry leader in the development of Web browser technology, targeting the desktop, mobile, PDA, home media and vertical markets. Partners include companies such as IBM, Nokia, Sony, Motorola, Adobe, Macromedia, Symbian, Sony Ericsson, Kyocera, Sharp, Motorola Metroworks, MontaVista Software, BenQ, Sendo and AMD. The Opera browser has received international recognition from users, industry experts and media for being faster, smaller and more standards-compliant than other browsers.

Opera's browser technology is cross-platform and modular, and currently available on the following operating systems: Windows, Windows Mobile, Linux, Mac OS, Symbian OS, BREW, QNX, TRON, FreeBSD, Solaris and Mediahighway. The Opera browser is also available as a Java-based (J2ME) browser solution called Opera Mini™ for the world's 700 million Java-enabled mobile phones.

Opera Software ASA is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with development centers in Linkoping and Gothenburg, Sweden. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at www.opera.com.

About Freedom Media AS

Freedom Media AS is a major player in the field of advanced content for 2,5G and 3G mobile phones. Its unique technological platform and one-click payment system allow content providers to bill their users either through a mobile operator or through 3rd party payment-solutions such as Payex/PayPal/major creditcards etc. with just a single click. Freedom offers market access to major content players, including leading scandinavian newspapers, stock exchange information, TV-channels, white/ yellow pages in addition to weather, GSM-positioning, maps and more.

Dangaard Telecom, Europe's largest distributor of Smart Phones, Mobile phones and original accessories, is a preferred partner of Freedom Media and has the exclusive rights to use and distribute the Freedom application.