Internet Browser

Screenshot of Opera Mini 5 Beta
Developer(s)	Opera Software
Initial release	August 10, 2005
Stable release	4.2.14912 (2009-08-03; 5 months ago)
Preview release	5.0.16823 (2009-12-02; 54 days ago)
Platform	Java ME
Available in	Various
Type	Mobile browser
License	Proprietary – Freeware
Website	http://www.opera.com/mini/

Opera Mini is a web browser designed primarily for mobile phones, but also for smartphones and personal digital assistants. It uses the Java ME platform and consequently requires that the mobile device be capable of running Java ME applications. Opera Mini is offered free of charge, supported through a partnership between its developer, the Opera Software company, and the search engine company
Opera Mini was derived from the Opera web browser for personal computers, which has been publicly available since 1996. Opera Mini began as a pilot project in 2005. After limited releases in Europe, it was officially launched worldwide on January 24, 2006.
Opera Mini requests web pages through the Opera Software company's servers, which process and compress them before relaying the pages back to the mobile phone. This compression process makes transfer time about two to three times faster, and the pre-processing smoothes compatibility with web pages not designed for mobile phones.

Unlike ordinary web browsers, Opera Mini fetches all content through a proxy server that reformats web pages into a format more suitable for small screens.A page is compressed, then delivered to the phone in a markup language called OBML (Opera Binary Markup Language). This compression process makes transfer time about two to three times faster^[and the pre-processing also smooths compatibility with web pages not designed for mobile phones.

When a user browses the web using Opera Mini, the request is sent via the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) to one of the Opera Software company's proxy servers, and that server retrieves the web page, processes it, compresses it, and sends it back to the user's mobile phone.