Opera teams with Telling to customize mobile browser for China

Mobile web solutions provider Opera Software will partner with Chinese mobile phone distributor Telling Telecom to develop a browser customized expressly for the enormous Chinese subscriber market. The joint venture will combine Opera's browser technology with Telling's local content and operations--Telling controls 18 percent of the Chinese mobile device distribution market, shipping over 30 million handsets each year. The company said it will leverage all of its resources, including over 40,000 retail outlets across the country, to integrate the new Opera browser into all of its phones.

Opera will own up to 40 percent of the joint venture, which touts a registered capital of 135 million RMB (about $20.5 million). Opera is guaranteed a minimum amount of revenue from the initiative, corresponding to its initial investment.

More than 100 million mobile subscribers worldwide access an 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. The company adds that the total does not include users who have downloaded the public version of the Opera Mini browser--nor does it account for users accessing Opera Mini browsers pre-installed by the company's operator partners, meaning the 100 million benchmark, in fact, underestimates its true worldwide userbase. Opera adds that the new store is also accessible via devices running non-Opera browsers.

Earlier this week, Opera entered the crowded app store segment, teaming with white-label storefront solutions provider Appia to roll out the Opera Mobile Store. Cross-platform applications storefront GetJar quickly removed Opera Mini from its catalog, explaining via Twitter "One thing we can't do is promote competing app stores."

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