Yeah, okay, I'm getting my ass handed to me. OperaWatch has a fantastic story about the advent of Opera at some of the US' largest universities. Apparently once things are free, no one is in a position to say no. He also has an editorial piece lambasting an Opera employee - I might comment about how silly it is later.
Opera's entry into the educational market is just starting to make me think what a wonderful position Opera is in at the moment. Sure they have only a limited amount of market share, but almost all of those users are monetised, in that they are all paying customers or they smurf with ads - which other company can say that people pay money just for their browser?
But more importantly, you see the potential for what can happen when Opera is made free. In the future, if Opera is acquired by a larger software company with a level of perhaps irrational exuberance and cash, Opera might be made free - though maybe with a "Pro" version; there'd be no sense in wasting the monetised customers already there.
I wouldn't hold my breath though, especially now that Opera has gone public and seems to be doing well. In particular, their position in the phone market alone should be reason enough to want to stay in the game - I can only assume that the potential market is enormous. And since Opera is able, small as it is now to achieve what it has, I don't see the management wanting to put that in jeopardy by being assimilated into a flabbier corporate culture.
That said, Adobe seems to be in an acquisitive mood recently - you never know.
Leave a comment