Opera announces iPhone browser - minus Apple approval

Opera will show off an iPhone browser at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week. Photo / Supplied

OSLO — Opera Software has announced it will unveil an iPhone version of its Opera Mini mobile phone browser at an international tech conference next week despite not having approached iPhone maker Apple about the move.

The Norwegian firm has not set a release date for its iPhone browser and has not yet sought approval to distribute the browser from Apple's iPhone applications store, Opera spokeswoman Katrin Jaakson said.

But Jaakson said Opera "does not see any reason why it wouldn't be accepted. We obviously hope that Apple will not deny their users a choice when it comes to what browser they use."

The iPhone's default browser is the Apple-developed Safari.

- AP