We are not immune to market, says Opera CEO

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND: Opera Software expects to benefit from consumers' surging appetite for mobile Internet usage, despite problems in the second half of this year, its chief executive told Reuters on Thursday.

"We are not immune to the market, but the trends are so much in our favour -- over time things will be just fine," Jon von Tetzchner said on sidelines of a telecoms conference in Geneva.

Opera shocked the markets in August with a cautious outlook -- citing currency market headwinds, big ramp-ups at some large operators and difficulties of some of its clients -- after the firm had beat market expectations for nine quarters in a row.

Earlier this week Opera said it has won a deal to supply browsers to AT&T phones, and von Tetzchner said the start has been good.

"AT&T has had a soft launch and a very successful one," he said.

Opera opened its Unite service, that enables simple sharing of personal computers' pictures, files or music with anyone on the Internet in June.

"Pickup has been huge," von Tetzchner said. "It's just a concept, a lab release. We hope to have a beta out soon."

Unite service, part of Opera's browser, enables direct downloading from personal computer to personal computer and removes any need for data storage at servers in the middle. Files can be viewed with any browser.

Similar technologies have been available before for tech-savvy consumers, but these have required downloading separate software, paying usage fees, or a long process of uploading content -- limiting take-up of the services.