Opera Software today announced the growing momentum for its Opera Mobile Web browser on devices running the Windows Mobile operating system. Major manufacturers, such as HTC and Toshiba, are including Opera on their handsets to provide their customers with a superior mobile Internet experience. Meanwhile, end-users are eager for better browsing on their mobile phones, resulting in a download increase of more than 50 percent on Opera's website from February 2006 to February 2007.

Over the last few months the Opera browser has been selected for the following handsets running Windows Mobile:

- Motorola MOTO Q q9
- ASUS V1210 for Vodafone International and the VDA IV for Vodafone Germany
- T-Mobile Ameo
- Dopod U1000 (Asia)
- Toshiba G500 and G900

During the month of February 2007, there were 216,283 downloads of Opera's browser for Windows Mobile Smartphone and PocketPC editions, up from 142,502 in February 2006. The Opera browser for PocketPC on Windows Mobile 5.0 is the most popular download among Opera's Windows Mobile browser offerings.

In addition, Opera Software is releasing a preview of the latest public version of the Opera browser for Windows Mobile. With Opera Mobile 8.65 (beta), users across all the PocketPC and Smartphone versions of Windows Mobile get a faster and more user-friendly Web experience. Users can enjoy new features such as searching directly in the address bar, grab and scroll (PocketPC only), copy text, save function for images and the ability to import IE bookmarks.