When Netscape Communications Corp released its new, long-awaited Communicator Internet browser in the summer of 1997, many users were disappointed. The problem was not with the facilities it offered, which were more extensive than ever, but with its sheer size. Not only was Communicator too big to be downloaded by some web browsers – old versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, for example – but at more than 14Mb, it could take an hour or longer to download. It also used up valuable hard disk space and had a tendency to hog system resources when in operation. Microsoft Corp’s latest version of Internet Explorer is, say critics, little better. And the plans of both companies to build web portals around their respective browser, which in Netscape’s case may now involve being a subsidiary of AOL, is also alienating a number of users. This discontent has led some analysts to suggest that perhaps there is room in the market for a third internet browser. It is a premise that has been seized on by Opera Software, a software developer based in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. We believe there is room for more players in this market and that we have a better [browser] solution for most people, says Jon von Tetzchner, founder and president of Opera Software. Opera is a spin-off from Telenor, Norway’s privatized $3bn telecommunications giant. The browser project was started in 1994 as a relatively frivolous exercise by a number of developers in Telenor’s research and development laboratory. They wanted to see if they could emulate what Netscape had done with Mosaic. The result was a browser that is considerably smaller and lighter than both Communicator and Explorer. It takes up only 1.7MB of hard disk space and can run on a 386SX-based PC with 6MB of memory. The reason why Opera is so slimline compared to its competitors, says Tetzchner, is because the company has avoided the standard programming practice of putting together functions by plundering the Netscape and Microsoft class libraries. Such modules often contain extraneous functions or code, says Tetzchner. Instead, the company codes all its own modules – a process that is more long-winded, but makes for a considerably more compact browser. One of the key advantages of Opera, says Telenor, is that it has a user interface that can more easily be customized. However, Opera’s best feature is without doubt its faster rendering of web pages – faster than both the latest versions of Communicator and Explorer. In addition, it boasts a number of extra ease-of-use features such as the ability to zoom in and out, both of the displayed page and of print-outs; the printing of ‘selections’ from web pages; and a considerably more sophisticated system of bookmarking favorite web sites. When users power up the browser, they are automatically supplied with a comprehensive list of bookmarks covering search engine sites, computer news and general news. And, perhaps most useful of all, all of the bookmarks stored on the user’s existing versions of Communicator and Explorer are also automatically imported. However, Opera does also have some significant drawbacks. Currently, it supports only version 3.2 of the hypertext mark-up language (HTML), the language with which web pages are designed, and Java language support was only added in February 1998. An HTML 4.0 version is in the pipeline, but with both Java and HTML being updated all the time, it is inevitable that a 10-man start- up is likely to have difficulty keeping up with all the changes. A more serious problem is that although Opera conforms to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) HTML specifications, Netscape and Microsoft do not, often adding proprietary extensions to their own browsers. With web page developers frequently building sites only with Netscape and Microsoft browsers in mind, Opera and other non-standard browser users can often be barred from viewing certain sites. The Wall Street Journal web site is one important example. Probably the most serious problem of all for the company, however, is the fact that Opera can only su
rvive by selling its product, while bigger and more illustrious competitors give theirs away free. Opera’s business model is to give users a 30-day free trial copy of the browser, and then charging them $35 for a permanent copy. Although there are approximately one million Opera users in the world at the moment, only around 100,000 have been persuaded to pay for it. Nevertheless, interest in the product is high across the globe, with the Opera web site reporting six million hits per month. This is no doubt fueled by the same sentiment that has made Linux, the Finnish freeware Unix operating system, so popular, not to mention anti-Microsoft and anti-Netscape sentiment. But however good the product is, turning good wishes into sales could prove too much of a challenge without a more robust sales and marketing strategy.
