Opera Turns 10

Opera, the alternative Web browser showing good momentum in the wireless and set-top box markets, is celebrating its 10th birthday – coming shortly after the same anniversary as Windows 95. Opera is marking the occasion by giving away free registration codes for 24 hours. To get one, click here. Opera roots go back to its days as a research project at Norwegian carrier Telenor. According to an interview Om Malik did in last month's Business 2.0 with CEO Jon von Tetzchner, Opera sells about 100K copies of its $39 software a year but only one-third of its revenue comes from the desktop market where it has 10 million to 15 million active users – most of them using the free ad-supported version. On the non-PC side of the house, von Tetzchner said Opera sold 8.8 million copies of its software last year. These customers include Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Casio, BenQ and Kyocera.