GetJar ousts Opera Mini as app store battle escalates

Cross-platform applications storefront GetJar has removed the popular Opera Mini browser from its catalog hours after Opera Software announced the launch of its own app store initiative. "Due to violations of our [terms and conditions] Opera Mini has been banned from GetJar," GetJar tweeted Tuesday. "Download Bolt, UCweb, Dolphin, Layar or Sqauce and others as needed." Subsequent tweets identified the new Opera Mobile Store as the culprit--developed in conjunction with white-label storefront solutions provider Appia, the marketplace touts both free and premium applications optimized for Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Java, also promising an experience customized to each user's handset, local language and currency.

"[Opera] placed an app store in their browser. One thing we can't do is promote competing app stores ;)," GetJar tweeted Tuesday evening. A subsequent post reads "We all have to make a living."

GetJar chief marketing officer Patrick Mork further addressed Opera Mini's removal in a blog entry. "The simple problem is that Opera Mini decided to include a competing app store in its browser," Mork writes. "Although we don't have any issue with this in principle, in practice it means that consumers might start using this app store instead of visiting GetJar to get their favorite apps. This robs GetJar of traffic and therefore of the advertising necessary to keep our service free for the more than 25 million consumers that use GetJar. It also jeopardizes an ecosystem that has generated over 1.6 billion downloads for tens of thousands of developers who depend on us to make money from their apps." Mork adds that GetJar spent "many months" in talks with Opera to avoid the scenario now unfolding.

Last month, Opera Software announced that more than 100 million mobile subscribers worldwide access its Opera browser each month: Opera Mini now boasts 90.4 million monthly users globally, with Opera Mobile adding roughly 15 million, extending Opera's combined reach to 105 million mobile consumers. Mork notes that GetJar alone accounts for more than 30 million Opera Mini downloads.

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