Opera Mobile 9.5 delayed

General

When we reviewed the HTC Touch Diamond, we noted that one of the most impressive features of the handset was its excellent web browser. The gesture support, text reformatting, and speed placed it on par with the likes of the iPhone’s Safari as one of the best mobile browsers experiences available to consumers. As it turns out, HTC is using a version of Opera’s Mobile 9.5 browser, software that was supposed to see a general public release by early July. Unfortunately, Opera has just announced that they have delayed the release of the browser until further notice July 17th. Apparently, the beta period revealed a number of bugs that have sent developers back to the drawing board. So sad. Check out the full statement from Opera below, and commence crying…now:

Some things in life don’t go according to plan — at least not in software development. We knew when we announced a release date before we finished development that a showstopper bug might be found that could alter the actual date we release the beta. 

As you can imagine, we encountered a few bugs last week that we needed to fix before we launch. Our engineering team worked through the weekend to fix the bugs. Even though our release is a beta, we’d rather spend the extra time to fix them, thus giving you a better experience. The fixes are almost complete now, but we need two more days to run the build through our quality assurance testing. The new launch date is now set for the 17th.

We’re disappointed to delay, but fixing these bugs will improve the experience with our beta and let you fully test the browser.

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20 Comments
  • The Outside

    crap

  • http://zkentspain.blogspot.com Z Kent

    what a shame. this was a good browser :) . A little more time, maybe?

  • Galvatron

    aw man opra puts out a good browser too
    opra mini is the equivalent of mozilla firefox for mobile phones

  • argonnj

    Opera mini is garbage.

  • Bob

    Um, is July 17th never coming? You know something we don’t?

  • http://none Andrewm

    A bit over the top on the title isn’t it? it’s a beta that’s delayed a week… big whoop.

  • http://none Andrewm

    lol, i take it back perhaps my eyes were playing tricks on me :P

  • MadMike

    Joshua,
    how does a specified date amount to indefinitely? Obviously, it means that date isn’t definite even though specified and its a correct description of the circumstance – but indefinite always has the ring of “forever.” Do you believe this to become vaporware?

    From the Opera blog, my impression was although severe, that the bugs weren’t so critical as to indicate a foundation design flaw. Actually, it looked quite cut and dry – Bugs are fixed but give us two more days and you’ll have your software type of deal. It sounded confident to me.

    Do you have a more detailed source of information on the problem?

  • Gauntlet Down

    You mean it won;t be here for…==three==…days!?

    Jeez, we’re doomed!

  • cmb

    I think the level of communication from Opera is really good and if its delayed a few days its not a big deal .. common 3 more days ? I think that most company would have it delayed for months.

  • Steve G

    Safari is working just fine on my iphone

  • Lil Whoa

    Does anyone know if you can use Opera Mini on an iPhone? Even more, would it even be an advantage to use this Opera Mobile 9.5 instead of Safari?

  • Strugglin

    Testing

  • Mobilehavoc

    Is this just Windows Mobile or Symbian too?

  • Steve

    Opera mini is great, but since it’s java it has limitations. It’s opera mobile that everyone is waiting for.

    I’ve been desperately waiting for this release today!

  • klondt

    good question…several comments on the link suggest it’s just the Windows version.

  • Alexander Petlichkov

    Anyone know for sure is OPERA 9.5 going to run on NON-touchscreen devices such as Moto Q9 and Samsung i600

  • argonnj

    Does anyone know if you can use Opera Mini on an iPhone? Even more, would it even be an advantage to use this Opera Mobile 9.5 instead of Safari?

    First off, Opera Mini is garbage and I can think of no compelling reason to use it on the iphone. As to Opera Mobile, it is only available for WM and Symbian, so your question is moot.

  • JKuhn

    thats why its incredibly popular, and works just as well as safari using half the amount of data. Yeah i guess it does suck. LOL

  • Collin

    whats the phone in the picture?

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