Opera opens mobile software store with Appia

HELSINKI, FINLAND: Opera Software unveiled on Monday a deal with privately-held Appia Inc to run a mobile software store for more than 100 million users of mobile browsers of the Norwegian firm.

Opera said in its testing state, the store had more than 15 million users in February, achieving more than 700,000 downloads per day, and establishing it among top 10 mobile application stores globally.

Also read: Opera Mini usage trends in India

Since Apple's App Store opened in 2008 and created the market for mobile software sales dozens of companies have opened their own stores.

The revenue-sharing deal between Opera and Appia, which changed its name from PocketGear last month, lasts three years. The deal doubles Appia's 100 million subscriber-base.

Also read: Opera intros two open source projects for developers

Opera is the world's most used mobile browser ahead of Apple, Nokia and Google's Android, controlling 21.2 percent of the market in February, according to Web analytics firm StatCounter.

The iPhone, Nokia and Android browsers all have 15 to 18 percent market shares.