Opera have just announced the latest version in their mobile browser, Opera Mobile 9.5. They have a host of new features in this release.

The one that stands out most for me is the ability to incorporate Flash Lite 3- (see previous post here)….the sad thing from their press release is that “OEM, Operators will have the capability to incorporate Flash Lite 3…” which means that the telco/handset guys still have control over your functionality, if they chose not to include this feature then it just really your bad luck…

If only they had it as a standard feature in their free browsers it could really provide a big shift and opportunity for media companies/content owners to develop compelling products for their browser….

Other neat features are: the ability to SMS bookmarks to friends, MMS/Email images directly from sites that you like by just selecting the image, and the widgets.

Features such these do have the potential to provide a good enough web experience on mobile. Personally I think Opera need to get out of the OEM/Telco mindsets and start opening up their offering directly to consumers. Give the browser away for free- build an ad supported model and work on a rev share with advertisers/media companies. I am sure they will see much greater usage by end-users of the product and it could then really be a big move to providing a true “Web” experience on mobile….

(As much as it pains to me say this- the Safari experience on my iPhone still seems to be much smoother. From the Video Demo- Opera seems to have a “clunky” UI)