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OCTOBER 11, 2004
Where Opera Is Out-Browsing Explorer Says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of the Norwegian browser maker: "We're beating Microsoft by a 10 to 1 margin in [cell] phones" For almost a decade, pockets of Web cognoscenti have snubbed Microsoft (MSFT ) and Netscape, choosing instead to surf the Internet on Opera, the browser produced by Norway's Opera Software. With its estimated 10 million users, Opera has long run a distant third in the browser battles. But with security concerns about Microsoft's Internet Explorer on the rise, growing numbers are downloading Opera. CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner discussed the browser business with Senior Writer Stephen Baker and Software Editor Steve Hamm. Edited excerpts follow: Q: Why would Opera be more secure than Microsoft's Internet Explorer? A: Microsoft has one big system. The integration of Internet Explorer with the desktop wasn't a good idea. When you combine big things, the chances things will go wrong increases. It's also the question of everyone using the same system. Hackers go to Microsoft because that's where the traffic is. Q: How do you do things differently at Opera? A: Oh, we have our share of security problems. But typically we can do a fix in 24 hours. If you look at secunia.com [a security site], you see we have issues, but all of them have been dealt with. Microsoft has lots of open issues. Q: How do you learn about your vulnerabilities? A: There's quite an active community of these guys [who probe the browsers for vulnerabilities]. We have a deal with them. If they give us a couple days to fix the problem, we give them credit when we put up the fix. We mention their names. It builds their reputation. Q: Some say that the Mozilla Firefox browser, supported by its open-source community, can address fixes faster than traditional software companies like Opera. Is this true? A: Someone can put up a patch quickly. But a patch can create new problems. There's testing that has to be done. Given all this, I think we're pretty quick. Q: You're small in the desktop browser business, but a leader in browsers for handheld devices. What are the growth prospects in mobile computing? A: We shipped 2 million browsers in phones last year, and then 1.5 million in the first quarter of 2004. I cannot give more recent numbers, but we are growing fast. We're beating Microsoft by a 10 to 1 margin in phones. That's not too bad. Mobile data is in its infancy now. But in a few years time, every mobile phone will have a browser. That's a much bigger market than PCs. Q: Are any of your browsers shipping in the U.S.? A: Cingular [a joint venture between SBC (SBC ) and BellSouth (BLS )] just announced it will be putting it into the Nokia 6620. That will be the first big launch in America. Q: With all the potential in handhelds, why stay as an also-ran in the desktop business? A: Our desktop market has had revenue growth of 30% to 50% for three years. It has helped us establish a global brand. Plus, the browser market is heating up. We're getting 1 million to 2 million downloads a month. Q: Do any PC makers install Opera as the default browser? A: No. Getting into PCs has not been clear sailing. A lot of companies don't want to go against Microsoft, even if they're allowed to. But there are back doors. In IBM's X40 ThinkPad, they provide a rescue disk that has Linux and Opera. So you can run the rescue disk and skip Windows altogether. Q: You broke into the black last year and went public in March on the Oslo Exchange, raising $17 million. How has the stock been behaving? A: It's strange. We were 20 times oversubscribed at the highest offering price. But the stock has been hovering under just that price ever since the IPO. It didn't help that they had the bombings in Madrid on the day of our IPO. 
BW MALL
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