Opera replaces Presto with WebKit in upcoming browser

The Opera Mobile web browser made a name for itself long before the post-PC era and was installed out of the box on Windows Mobile devices like the HTC Touch Diamond and the HTC Touch Pro, as an alternative to Internet Explorer. Since its inception Opera has made us of its Presto engine which uses compression technology on less capable handsets that let Opera's servers handle the load before sending the page off to your phone. This saves users from spending too much of their valuable data allowance on browsing.

Now with their upcoming Opera Ice browser the company is planning to replace Presto with the WebKit engine.

WebKit has already proven itself as the engine which powers both the mobile Safari in iOS and the Android stock browser. The Opera Ice browser is expected to be fully gesture based and tabs are replaced by icons on its home page. The Ice browser will work on both phones and tablets and is expected to arrive on iOS and Android sometime this month.

The WebKit engine is already very good, and we aim to take part in making it even better. It supports the standards we care about, and it has the performance we need. It makes more sense to have our experts working with the open source communities to further improve WebKit and Chromium, rather than developing our own rendering engine further. Opera will contribute to the WebKit and Chromium projects, and we have already submitted our first set of patches: to improve multi-column layout."-Håkon Wium Lie, CTO, Opera Software

Opera will not only make use of the open source WebKit engine, but also plan to make use of the Chromium open source technology. Opera's CTO said that Opera is better off working with the open source communities to improve the open source engines than trying to make Presto better.

Opera is not expected to show off the new Ice browser at the upcoming MWC in Barcelona. Instead they will have their current versions of Opera Mobile and Opera Mini on display. However with their existing 300 million monthly user base, the company has an audience who will warmly welcome the new web browser when it is ready for consumption.



source – PocketLink