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Opera Widgets go mass market

Product Manager Divisha Chandna discusses Opera Widgets

As a part of making the Internet accessible for all, different ways of presenting Web content help make the full Web available on virtually any device. One tool for creating more instant, convenient and on-demand access is widgets. In implementing its cross-platform and cross-device widget solution, Opera Software has continued to support and deliver the full Web across the full range of Internet-enabled devices. As Opera Widgets Product Manager, Divisha Chandna explains, "Widgets are in fact full Web content, the real Internet, broken down into smaller, manageable chunks for one-click access."

Divisha Chandna

From a technical point of view, Opera Widgets offer operators the open-standards-based, device- and platform-agnostic approach that Opera employs across its products. Opera Widgets are created with basic, standard Web technology (HTML, CSS or JavaScript), meaning they are easy to develop and can easily be deployed across platforms and devices. Opera offers a more horizontal approach to the market by covering all operating systems. Using Web technology also allows for syncing of applications, such as email, personal calendars, among other applications, across different devices.

Keeping these technical considerations in mind, mobile operators seek to launch a harmonized set of services and applications across multiple handsets and device types. Widgets add convenience to using the Internet on a small screen and at the same time allow for personalization of Internet services and applications. For example, a user can customize the Flickr application to open to their photo page with one-click access, or have their Facebook application directly open to their page from the home screen of the device. Because of open standards and Web technology, widgets can be created and deployed easily, just as mobile operators have envisioned.


Because of open standards and Web technology, widgets can be created and deployed easily, just as mobile operators have envisioned.


In terms of how Opera Widgets help enable and launch this vision, operator-specific application stores are beginning to propel widgets into the mass market. For example, Opera partners, T-Mobile and Vodafone, are using the Opera Widgets solution and technology as part of their strategy to launch their app stores. T-Mobile just launched the web'n'walk 4 proposition in Germany. Vodafone refers to widgets as the new touchpoint for how users will access the Internet on their mobiles.

Read more

To learn more about Opera Widgets, see other Opera Widgets resources:

www.opera.com/widgets/sdk/

widgets.opera.com

widgets.opera.com/widgetize

To read about a successful Opera Widgets implementation, read the T-Mobile case study

Ordinary demands, extraordinary solutions

Introduction: Opera CEO, Jon von Tetzchner "Opera offers its partners future-proof, standards-based solutions that give freedom to operators in terms of what they can offer and how they offer it." Read more.

Widgets: More than technology

"From an operator's perspective, the more developers and widgets there are, the wider the audience the operator can reach." Read about Opera and the widget-development community here.

The widget-filled future

VisionMobile's Research Director, Andreas Constantinou, discusses the mobile widget space. Read why he thinks widgets are the future.

State of the mobile Web

See how operators in the top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage stack up. Read all about the latest mobile trends here.

Featured content

T-Mobile case study

Read about T-Mobile's widget solution.

T-Mobile web'n'walk

Zero click to Web content. See the video.

Device gallery

See the breadth of devices where Opera is found.