Let’s waste no time getting into the stats.  Opera said in a statement, "In October 2010, Opera Mini had over 76.3 million users, a 7.1% increase from September 2010 and more than 92% compared to October 2009."  Also, "Since September, page views have gone up 12.6%.  Since October 2009, page views have increased 142%."

Then here’s one more important cluster of data points: Opera said, "In October 2010, Opera Mini users generated over 616 million MB of data for operators worldwide.  Since September, the data consumed went up by 15.1%.  Data in Opera Mini is compressed up to 90%.  If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 5.7 petabytes of data in October.  Since October 2009, data traffic is up 134%."

So it looks like quite a rush is underway, with young people leading the charge.  (Opera found most 18-to-27-year-old Opera Mini users use their mobile phones to access the Web more often than a desktop or laptop PC.)

That info should be of use to content creators and advertisers, not to mention companies like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.  Of course, as mentioned before, Opera Mini users may not fit into the middle of any bell curve, but perhaps they’ll function as early adopters who forecast trends.

Opera’s more personal conclusions stems from a 300,000-individual survey, by the way, not any sort of user-monitoring program.

As part of the agreement, Opera and any of Telenor’s business units may develop a co-branded version of Opera Mini that is adapted to the local operator.

"Telenor has a vision to provide mobile Internet with a great user experience to everyone. We are confident that this agreement will help us provide Internet to a larger user group across the world," says Morten Karlsen Sørby, EVP and Head of Corporate Development at the Telenor Group. "We are thrilled to work closely with Opera, a company that spun out of Telenor in the late 1990s, and have grown to become one of Norway’s most successful technology exports.”

"Our goal is simple: help Telenor grow its user base and revenues by delivering an unparalleled Internet experience to every local operator in the Telenor network. Telenor’s strong global position is a result of their relentless commitment to the customer, in markets as diverse as Sweden, Russia, Bangladesh and Hungary,” says Lars Boilesen, CEO, in Opera. "We are proud of our heritage from Telenor’s research labs. Today, we join efforts to give more people the opportunity to fully enjoy the web on their mobile phones."

The first deployment of Opera Mini in the Telenor network is coming in September.

Opera says Opera Mini is the world’s most popular mobile browser, with 60 million monthly users.

"Opera Mini has experienced tremendous page view growth in recent years," the company says. "In June 2008, Opera Mini servers processed 100 million page views per day for the first time. In June 2010, Opera Mini users viewed more than 910 million pages on average every day, an increase of more than 161% since June 2009."

"Each day is different in the fast-growing mobile Web. Every day more people around the world choose Opera Mini and view more pages through this browser," said Opera co-founder Jon von Tetzchner. "Crossing one billion pages views in a day is further proof that people desire the best Internet experience, no matter where they live or what device they use."

Opera Mini is available on over 3,000 different phone models. Version 5.1 was just launched for Android a couple weeks ago. This may pad opera’s numbers even more as Android growth continues.

Yesterday, Opera released its State of the Mobile Web report, looking at the mobile web explosion in Africa.

"Opera Mini is a favorite not just on feature phones, but also on smartphones, scoring an impressive 1 million downloads on the iPhone during the first 24 hours of availability," Opera says. "Opera Mini is highly optimized for almost any handset, delivering the best Internet experience on more than 3000 mobile phone models."

"Opera Mini 5.1 for the Android platform is the next step in bringing the world’s most popular mobile web browser to all major platforms, offering improved performance and great web experience to almost any handset," says Opera CEO Lars Boilesen. "Opera Mini is used by over 61 million people on more than 3000 handset models and with today’s release Opera continues its mission to provide the best web experience on any device and on any platform."

The browser can be set as the default browser on your phone, and the company says on Android phones with bigger screens, it offers improved page layout.

Opera Mini 5.1 for Android can be downloaded via the Android Market or at m.opera.com.

"Regardless of differences in economy, culture or location, those four evening hours account for a disproportionate amount of mobile data consumption," the company says.

Opera’s report is based on usage of its own Opera Mini browser, which certainly isn’t representative of all mobile usage, but it does have a lot of users, and the stats are worth noting.

Opera Highlights the following global trends:

- In May 2010, Opera Mini had over 61.4 million users, a 4.2% increase from April 2010. Since May 2009, the number of unique users has increased 142.0%.

- Indonesia passed Russia to claim the top spot for Opera Mini usage, Nigeria jumped ahead of Ukraine, and South Africa leaped ahead of the United States. After the changes, the top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage in May 2010 were: Indonesia, Russia, India, China, Nigeria, Ukraine, South Africa, the United States, Vietnam and the United Kingdom.

"Our servers compress more than four petabytes of data each month, and that number shows no signs of slowing," said Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder, Opera Software. "As more consumers use increasingly vast amounts of mobile data, it looks like we will need more people looking after our servers in the evening hours. The heaviest mobile browsing worldwide occurs between 8 p.m. and midnight, regardless of where people live, their current economic situation, or the availability of broadband."

Some more stats from the report are highlighted here, and the entire report itself can be found here. A significant amount of the report focuses on trends in Latin America.

When asked what Opera Mini will be able to offer iPhone users that they haven’t been able to get elsewhere, Opera’s Katrin Jackson tells WebProNews that Opera Mini will provide speed, cost-savings, and usability features like tabs, speed dial, and password manager.

"Opera Mini on iPhone is several times faster than the native Safari browser," Jackson says. "Our internal tests conclude up to 6 times faster."

"For many users on pay per MB or while roaming, Opera Mini will reduce browsing cost up to 90%," Jackson adds.

Currently, Opera is only providing a sneak peek of Opera Mini on iPhone only (not iPod Touch). "We are thrilled to offer journalists and partners an exclusive preview of Opera Mini for iPhone during the year’s biggest mobile event," says Opera Co-founder Jon von Tetzchner. "This is a unique opportunity to introduce the fast, feature-rich Opera Mini experience for the iPhone, and to showcase our latest beta releases of Opera Mobile and Opera Mini on other platforms and devices. Opera’s mission is to bring the Web to the world, and by making Opera Mini available on yet another platform, we are one step closer."

Opera has not provided a date for a public release of Opera Mini for the iPhone. The company tells us that it has not yet submitted it to the Apple App store.
 

Related Articles:

> Opera Scoops Up Mobile Advertising Firm AdMarvel

> Opera Releases New SDKs and New Browser

> Opera CEO Steps Down, Immediately Replaced

About 40 million people used Opera Mini in October, according to the company. That’s an 11.3% increase from September 2009 and more than 155% compared to October 2008. page-views and data transfers increased at an even more impressive rate. Opera says that because of this, consumers can save 9.4 billion USD per year just by using Opera Mini. If you want to know how this translates to you personally, Opera has a cost calculator in its new State of the Mobile Web report.

"Because Opera Mini compresses data by up to 90%, people everywhere can reduce the amount they pay each month for mobile data," says Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner. "By making the Web accessible and affordable on mobile devices, we can usher in a communications revolution on an unprecedented scale. Opera Mini is helping to spur this change — potentially affecting the lives of billions — not just by making mobile browsing possible, but by making it affordable, as well."

The 39.6 million people using Opera Mini in October viewed 17.2 billion pages.

From September, page-views increased 14.8%. From October 2008, they increased 238%. A few more interesting stats from Opera’s report include: 

- Opera Mini users generated more than 263 million MB of data for operators worldwide in October 2009.

- Since September, the data consumed went up by 16%.

- Data in Opera Mini is compressed up to 90%, meaning Opera Mini servers processed up to 2.5 petabytes of data this month.

- Since October 2008, data traffic increased 233%.

The top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage are (in order) are Russia, Indonesia, India, China, Ukraine, South Africa, United States, United Kingdom, Poland and Vietnam. This is exactly the same as it was in September.

As mobile web use is clearly growing rapidly, it is important that your site has not only a good, usable mobile presence, but it is also essential that your site be visible in mobile search. We recently looked at some advice from Google on making sure you’re indexed in Google’s mobile web search, and how to handle the two different versions of you site (mobile/desktop). Read more here.
 

Related Articles:

> Ensuring Your Site is Indexed in Google’s Mobile Search

> Smartphone Sales Up 12% In Q3

> Usage of Mobile Web and Apps Doubles in 2 Years

In late August, when Opera released its State of the Mobile Web report, it found that in July, nearly 29.1 million people used Opera Mini, a 9.9% increase from June 2009 and more than 145% compared to July 2008. These numbers reflect only the Opera Mini users who have specifically chosen to install the browser on their phone.

Those 29.1 million people viewed more than 12 billion pages in July 2009, and from June until that report was released, page views had gone up 15.4%. Since July 2008, page views had increased 223%.

New versions of Opera Mini 5 that the company highlights include:

1. A new "intuitive and advanced" design

2. Tabbed browsing, a popular feature of the desktop version

3. Touchscreen or keypad browsing

4. Password manager, which saves all passwords for email, social networks, online banking, etc.

5. Speed dial, which is essentially a place to keep favorites sites on your homepage.

"In our own research, we have learned that the number-one reason people use Opera Mini is because it is easy — easy to use the Web you know. The idea of navigating the vastness of the Web from such a small screen can be a daunting leap, which is why we have long committed to make the browsing experience you are familiar with from your PC, easy to do on your mobile phone," says Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner. "With new, sleek navigation buttons, tabbed browsing and Speed Dial bookmarks, you are never more than a click away from where you want to go on the Web."

Earlier this month, Opera released the final incarnation of the most recent version of its desktop browser as well – Opera 10. This made some headlines with its inclusion of Opera Turbo, a new compression technology for use with slow connections.

"This month’s report shows that people are using the mobile Web more intensively," says Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner. "We believe that giving people everywhere a better browser will encourage them to browse more. So if we want the Web to be available to everyone, we need a solution that can work on almost every phone. That was why we originally made Opera Mini. And so far, the world has responded. We continue to be humbled by that response."

Some of the global trends Opera found include:

- In July , nearly 29.1 million people used Opera Mini, a 9.9% increase from June 2009 and more than 145% compared to July 2008. These numbers reflect only the Opera Mini users who have specifically chosen to install the browser on their phone.

- Those 29.1 million people viewed more than 12 billion pages in July 2009. Since June, page views have gone up 15.4%. Since July 2008, page views have increased 223%.

- Opera Mini users last month generated nearly 187 million MB of data for operators worldwide. Since June, the data consumed went up by 11.0%. Data in Opera Mini is compressed up to 90%. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 1.7 PB of data in July. Since July 2008, data traffic is up 223%.
 
-  The top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage are (in order): Russia, Indonesia, India, China, Ukraine, South Africa, United States, Nigeria, Germany and Poland.

The latest report also focused heavily on Middle East trends, where the top ten countries using Opera mini are Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Yemen.

"The release candidate pushes us closer to the final launch of Opera 10," said Jan Standal, Vice President of Desktop Products, Opera. "We paid special attention to the mail client, which is one of our most enduring and popular features. Now, we are very close to releasing the best browser in Opera’s long history. We hope everyone who has helped us test our browser thus far will put the release candidate through its paces. With everyone’s help, Opera 10 will surprise a lot of people with its speed, stability and powerful features."

The release candidate includes features like: 

- New look and feel

- New application icon

- Enhanced speed and performance

- Opera Turbo

- New bandwidth-booster for slow connections

- Improved Opera Mail

- Tabbed browsing includes resizable thumbnail tabs

- Opera’s Speed Dial upgraded

- Faster on resource intensive pages like Gmail and Facebook (40% faster than Opera 9.6)

The release candidate is available for download.

In other Opera news, the Opera Mini application has been named the most downloaded moible app. App marketplace GetJar says the app has been downloaded 25 million times from its store alone. StatCounter has Opera at 25% share of the mobile browser market.