Update: Opera to give away browser

Computerworld - Opera Software ASA will no longer force users of the free PC version of its Web browser, Opera, to view advertising banners.
Beginning today, the company will give away an unrestricted version of the software for use on PCs. Previously, Opera Software offered a browser with no advertising banners for a fee, while the free version displayed advertising banners in the browser window -- in addition to any advertising contained on Web sites being visited.
The free software is now available for download, in 20 languages, at http://www.opera.com.
The company still offers other software and services for a fee, however. Versions of the browser for mobile phones and other non-PC platforms are available for $35. And for $29 a year the company offers an e-mail support service for the Windows, Mac OS X and Linux versions of its browser.
Now that its browser is free, the company sees itself in a race with the open-source Mozilla Firefox browser for No. 2 status behind Microsoft Corp.'s dominant Internet Explorer browser.
"We're really not after Firefox users," said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of Opera. "We'll be looking to get IE users to try it. IE users, they definitely need something better. Our goal is to get more users from IE."
The goal is realistic, he said. "Where was Mozilla a year ago? Most of their growth has come in the last 12 months."
Opera has been eyeing a move to a free license for its browser for some time, he said, and was able to make the switch because the company has seen shifts in how it brings in revenue.
At the beginning, most revenue came from license fees for the browser itself, but the move into banner ads and on-screen Yahoo and Google search boxes brought in new revenue streams, he said.
"Revenue with that has been increasing to the point where it has been a significant part of our desktop revenue," von Tetzchner said. "By removing the fee, we can increase the user base, hopefully quite significantly, and increase revenue even more."
For its 10th birthday celebration three weeks ago, Opera Software gave away registration codes for its Web browser. When the company saw three million users downloading the banner-free, full-featured browser for free, that helped push the free-browser strategy, he said.
"We had planned to do it for some time. If that had been a disaster, we might have thought twice."
Peter Sayer, of the IDG News Service, contributed to this report.

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