17 February 2009 by Olav Hellesø-Knutsen

Opera Software speeds up their browser with Turbo - Esato Special

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Opera Software has announced a new version of the Opera Mobile Internet browser which will give a bandwidth advantages up to 80% compared to previous version
17 February 2009

Opera have three versions of their Internet browser. One free version for desktop PCs, a free Java version for mobile phones and a commercial version for device manufactures and network operators. This is a short description of the differences behind the three versions and how they fetch pages from the Web:

The Opera Desktop requests pages directly from the source. I.e it sends a request directly to the server www.esato.com where the Esato server responds with a HTML page. Opera Desktop render the page as the author wanted it to be displayed.
Opera Mobile sends the request directly to the server and will receive the same page as Opera Desktop, but the browser will render the page optimized for the small display on a mobile phone. Opera Mobile is currently used in many Windows Mobile devices from HTC, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. Opera Mobile is a commercial version were the device manufactures pay a license fee for the usage.
Opera Mini is a freely downloadable Java application for all mobile phones supporting Java. This version of the browser works a little differently. It do not send page requests directly to the source, but are sending the request to an Opera operated server. The Opera server will fetch the requested page from the source and compress it in several ways before returning a small version of the page to the Opera Mini client on the mobile phone. Opera Mini is a “dumb” application which just will render the page as it was instructed by the Opera server.

Opera Turbo is the name of a new feature which will be implemented into the Opera Desktop and Opera Mobile version of the browser. It will have the usual user interface we find in the current Desktop and Mobile versions, but with the added speed of the Opera Mini. Opera Turbo enabled browsers sends a request to the Opera server which again fetch, compress, and return a compressed version of the page to the client. The business model is currently unknown, and must of course be sorted out before a public release. Opera will not be able to be the man in the middle of all requests from Desktop versions without a compensation. The need for required infrastructure would be too much. The network operators will lower the bandwidth usage with a claimed 80% reduction. Offering the turbo service to the Desktop version make sense as many now has a portable PC with a 3G card built in and are connecting to the net via their network operator.

Comments

On 18 Feb 20:54 aimad wrote

j ai samsung sgh e 250 maroc telecom svp aidez moi je cherche les site qui travail sur ce portable gratuitment j habite au maroc merci

On 18 Feb 09:29 carkitter wrote

Wow, thats a staggering proposition. Faster browsing and lower bandwidth consumption - I'd pay for that, especially for Desktop AND iPhone 3G compatible versions that could be sync-ed together. I assume that aversion will be forthcoming for the Idou? If so, this makes the Idou even more attractive than ever.

I hope Opera can make a good business case for this so that they can secure what must be an obscene amount of infrastucture investment in this current financial climate. :-)

Come on network providers, get behind this as a means of reducing excessive load on expensive network infrastructure and combating long lead times for expansion!

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