Turns out that only Windows mobile version of Opera 9.5 Mobile browser beta will be released next week. While Symbian and any other mobile OS users are advised to stick with Opera Mini, or the current browser they use.
According to official Opera Mobile blog:
We do not yet know when the Symbian version will be ready because development and quality assurance on mobile devices is time consuming. In the meantime Opera Mini is a great alternative for Symbian users. On July 15th, we’ll release that first beta for Windows Mobile.
It would be good to know the real reasons why Opera decided to go with Windows Mobile OS, which has a significantly lower market share and thus potential market then Symbian OS. My guess here would be about the touch interfaces.
While there are some interesting Symbian based touch screen phones out there, they are few and far between.
The touch UI developments on Windows Mobile, with Samsung Omnia, HTC Diamond, Asus Lamborghini and many other cool WM6 handsets hitting the shelves, just look far more exciting and numerous. For now.
And, as we already shown you back in February, Opera Mobile 9.5 is a very much touch optimized browser. So it’s only natural that they go where the best devices for their features are.
And, when Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Motorola finally get around to producing some good full touchscreen UI Symbian based smartphones, we’ll also get the new Opera for them.
