One of the things that I am really proud of is that so many people have chosen to use Opera every month. Latest number indicate more than 330 million users and Opera even claims more than 350 million users. Those are significant numbers, although I think we could have done even better than that. The official goal was to reach 500 million is 2013, while the current management moved that goal to 2015.
Of the 350 million users, 248 million are using Opera Mini, 22 million are using Opera Mobile, 51 million are using Opera Desktop and between 10 and 30 million are using Opera on other devices.
Of these users, most are still using Presto. Presto is still in use in Opera Mini and most all devices, such as the Wii and DS, are using Presto as well. Probably half the Desktop and Mobile users are still on Presto. Adding this together gives you around 300 million Opera users still on Presto.
Have a great day!
Jon.
My opinion as a real _long_term_ user of Opera can be found here: https://vivaldi.net/forum/browsers/298-reasons-for-using-chromopera-opera-new-instead-of-srware-s-iron-qupzilla-or-chrome-itself-f
Once again thank You dear Mr. von Tetzchner for accompanying me and supplying me such a long time (more than 18 years!) with the best browser known to me! š
Jon, having followed your adventures in the cyber world for a short while, I offer my heartfelt thanks for your sharing the obvious technical talent you so richly possess. As a writer I offer any help my meager skill set might render as you progress in this Vivaldi chorus.
I never understood those who constantly attacked Presto (and Opera in general) for not being compatible with popular sites. Personally I have used Opera from 1998 until 2011. There were some problems here and there, especially in the 2007-8 time frame, mostly with financial institutions and competitors like Microsoft locking out Opera for one reason or the other. Presto was in my opinion a sleek fast browser engine with great potential and vitality. I am still convinced it could have been playing ball with the best of them if it had continued to receive development resources from the great team of developers Opera had in it hands. That was not the case unfortunately.
I use Chrome a lot these days and yet again today I had to load a page in Firefox which locked up Chrome. There will be problems like these with any modern browser engine. I felt it a great loss when Presto got ditched and Opera sunk into “yet another clean UI limited functionality” browser. And when one great feature after the other got pulled out I gave up. If a browser came around with the rich user interface Opera had I would be the first to use it, just like I was when Opera 3 was launched in late December of 1997.
Is there any chance to “buy what’s left” of the Presto engine from Opera and develope a different browser on that basis? Opera 12 is by far the best browser I have used so far, but it’s becoming slower, so I had to switch to FF.
I’m sure many Presto fans would love to support a project like that via micropayments and/or crowdfunding.
Opera can truly be proud to have developed Presto while being the clear underdog, always innovating and sometimes moving well ahead of the rest, with all sorts of disadvantages in a market dominated by giants.
Still, when Blink was announced, I was honestly not too sad – for me as a simple end user without any ties to web development, I just wanted to use the program. Like in a car, I don’t care much about what exactly working under the hood, but I do care about all the knobs and dials, the speed and the comfort and the mileage (aka memory use?). I believed that the switch to Blink would actually free resources and allow focusing the resources of all those experienced developers on all the things that I considered Opera, which is to provide the best experience and to innovate. I expected that the first post-Presto Opera would surface later, when most of the features of the revered old Opera 12 would be implemented. I expected Speeddial, I expected bookmarks, History navigation, Notes, and M2. I thought they’d drop IRC, which I considered would be a pity (who does like to have their pets killed, anyway?).
We all know the end result. I just don’t see the point. From day one of Opera 15, I have asked: “What is the unique selling point”? Can’t convince anyone if you don’t have one. Not having features doesn’t really count; if that were the case, Firefox wouldn’t have continued to build in features. Right now, Opera n+1 is simply a me too product, and in its current form somewhere between not required and superfluous.
In my opinion, the market niche between all those ‘I’m faster and more flexible’ products is the internet suite. Without having seen many market studies, I simply don’t believe that the *average* FF or Chrome user has more than 1 extension installed. Opera became very good at elegantly hiding functionality without making it harder to use. That was a great way to an ever better product.
Wow, didn’t know Mini takes such a big slice of the cake. š®
Actually, I do not think many know how massive Opera Mini was, and probably is as far as users go.
After Opera’s announcement of moving away from Presto, and the features fiasco, I switched to SeaMonkey and I have been happy so far. š SeaMonkey is the only remaining Internet suite now that still been supported. š®
On mobile I still use Opera Mini. I will still use Mini till Opera start striping, messing, ripping, changing, etc…
Opera Presto is very stable (I know of no other browser that will handle 175 tabs in 25 Windows, and a laptop with 2GB of RAM still usable) Opera on the Wii is more advanced than a lot of IE on desktop is still (besides recent versions)
Opera has the oldest browser title now I do believe, and the number of users will keep growing
[quote]Opera has the oldest browser title now I do believe, and the number of users will keep growing[/quote]
I have read the the quarterly and annual reports and if I have read right, the highest number of Desktop users was with 11.64 – since then the number went down. Some other statistics say the same. When I look at the usual “State of the web” reports that show some numbers, the only part that really increased was Mini, Mobile seems to stagnate since some time.
… and it is still a shame that Mini was so neglected by many sites and web designers – it is way more massive than e.g. the iPhone with its browser. Until 2012 Mini had more active users than Apple had sold iPhones in total (meaning from the first to the latest model, not meaning active users, those are roughly a third of the number) and the active user base of Mini is still bigger than that of the iPhone but site owners and web designers still ignore Mini.
Yeah I’m kinda stumped! I always knew that Opera was bigger on the mobile sector. But I had no Idea it was this much… š®
I’ve also been using Mini for a long time (absolutely loved it) but at some point switched over to what is now called Opera Classic (how ironic). Mini is certainly a part of my digital life that I hold very dear. You know, one of those nostalgic things… š