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Friday, June 1, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
Opera Mini now on low-cost tablet
Future Mobile Technology, (FMT) the designers and manufacturers of the netsurferTOUCH, South Africa’s home-grown tablet, announced this week that it has signed an agreement with Opera Software, my favourite browser company. This partnership will see Opera Mini preinstalled on FMT's devices.
Having Opera Mini pre-installed on FMT tablets and readers makes sense as Mini shrinks pages down by up to 90%. That’s a huge cost saving on data. At the same time, it doesn’t reduce the full online experience in any way.
A super fast browser that works on any network, including 2G and Edge, is a massive boon for users and operators. For operators, the shrinking of the pages is great, too. It means they have more people browsing using their tablets and phones but without using too much bandwidth.
It also means that in areas where network coverage may not be fabulous, there is no reduction in speed.
"Africa is a booming market for us; we are super-excited to work with FMT to bring Opera browsers to their netsurfer brand of tablet devices," says Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera Software. "For South Africa, where fixed line infrastructure does not have a high penetration, many people access the web for the first time via some sort of mobile device. The netsurferTOUCH is low cost and high quality so we can expect an even greater uptake of tablets as a result, which means more people using Mini. Sweet.”
FMT’s android-operated tablet, the netsurferTOUCH, was designed with Africa in mind. FMT's deal with PEP stores, which sells the tablet via its PEP and PEP Cell stores for R1999, has allowed FMT to make inroads into a much broader market. At the same time, offering after-sales service with customer care in seven languages. Although I doubt Greek, which would be kind of fun, seeing that I speak it.
Of course, by offering the pre-installed Opera Mini browser, FMT is helping its consumer base get more for their money. Opera Mni uses only a tenth of the bandwidth required by other browsers. That means a massive 10 times more internet usage for each and every customer.
Good news for users is that the latest versions of the Opera Mini and Opera Mobile have been given an extra boost of speed and power. Even on sites with secure encryption or lots of graphics, pages load with a snap and scroll smoothly. Users will also be able to play the next generation of games on their mobile devices, thanks to WebGL hardware acceleration.
Having Opera Mini pre-installed on FMT tablets and readers makes sense as Mini shrinks pages down by up to 90%. That’s a huge cost saving on data. At the same time, it doesn’t reduce the full online experience in any way.
A super fast browser that works on any network, including 2G and Edge, is a massive boon for users and operators. For operators, the shrinking of the pages is great, too. It means they have more people browsing using their tablets and phones but without using too much bandwidth.
It also means that in areas where network coverage may not be fabulous, there is no reduction in speed.
"Africa is a booming market for us; we are super-excited to work with FMT to bring Opera browsers to their netsurfer brand of tablet devices," says Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera Software. "For South Africa, where fixed line infrastructure does not have a high penetration, many people access the web for the first time via some sort of mobile device. The netsurferTOUCH is low cost and high quality so we can expect an even greater uptake of tablets as a result, which means more people using Mini. Sweet.”
FMT’s android-operated tablet, the netsurferTOUCH, was designed with Africa in mind. FMT's deal with PEP stores, which sells the tablet via its PEP and PEP Cell stores for R1999, has allowed FMT to make inroads into a much broader market. At the same time, offering after-sales service with customer care in seven languages. Although I doubt Greek, which would be kind of fun, seeing that I speak it.
Of course, by offering the pre-installed Opera Mini browser, FMT is helping its consumer base get more for their money. Opera Mni uses only a tenth of the bandwidth required by other browsers. That means a massive 10 times more internet usage for each and every customer.
Good news for users is that the latest versions of the Opera Mini and Opera Mobile have been given an extra boost of speed and power. Even on sites with secure encryption or lots of graphics, pages load with a snap and scroll smoothly. Users will also be able to play the next generation of games on their mobile devices, thanks to WebGL hardware acceleration.
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