Opera “Trial” for Wii Hitting Wii Shop Friday
- December 19th, 2006
- 5 Comments
Beginning Friday, you’ll be able to catch up on CrunchGear posts between rounds of WiiSports.
Opera just announced that the “trial” version of Opera for Wii will hit the Wii shop this Friday. Best part: It’s free, at least for now (the word “trial” tends to mean price spikes could come at any minute.) So scoop it up while the scoopin’s free.
Opera
Edit: The final version of Opera for Wii will be available for free for all Wii owners from March through the end of June. After that, it’ll be for sale in the Wii Shop Channel for 500 Wii Points. - Blake
Amit (Who am I?)
1 year ago
Opera definetly knows what it is doing. They originally had a superior browser (pre-firefox) and I believe them charging for it is what got them to not be hugely popular. (Sidenote: By some reports, Firefox has 25 percent of the browser market now) . However, now that Opera has decided to branch their browser into other devices, it will probably do well. The Opera mini is a godsend (mini.opera.com). Unfortunately they will start charging for the Opera on Wii which will suck until an open source browser comes by and takes their spot. They should do what Firefox does and have a Google affiliation (or some other search engine) as their main page and rake up the money through ad revenue sharing.
Amit
Jon (Who am I?)
1 year ago
If my memory serves me correctly, the reason why Firefox “beat” Opera is because Opera had a free (ad supported) version and if you didn’t want to see these ads, you had to pay. I may be wrong of course and thinking of another browser but I am pretty sure it was Opera.
Anyways, I don’t see the point of navigating the web without the ability to TYPE STUFF INTO THE BROWSER. Unless Wii comes out with a wireless keyboard that is affordable & not charge people for something they can get for free on their computer… this is not the revolution that will allow Opera to overtake Firefox anytime soon.
Jon
mathew (Who am I?)
1 year ago
Nintendo don’t need to come out with a wireless keyboard, they just need to provide driver software for standard Bluetooth keyboards…
Philip
1 year ago
Pretty sure that Wii’s interface sports an on-screen “virtual” keyboard (which should suffice for light browsing).
Philip
Reply
Isaiah (Who am I?)
1 year ago
I agree with Jon - part of the reason why browsers on game systems don’t work as well is because by nature, we’re used to typing on keyboards. (This doesn’t include texting.) If drivers for keyboards become a possiblity, then I’m all for the browser - hopefully I get my Wii in time to avoid paying for it.