Over 100 million Android phones expected to integrate Opera Max by 2017

News landed on our desk recently concerning the uptake of Opera’s data management / compression app Opera Max, which aims to reduce the amount of data used by Android phones. In an age where unlimited data plans are expensive, and increasingly being scaled back by the majority of operators, anything that can reduce the amount of data used by apps such as video streams can only be a good thing. With a focus on security too, Opera Max doesn’t touch data that goes through secure connections.

The app seems particularly useful for those people in parts of the world where data can be prohibitively expensive, or simply when using older, slower network technologies where the user experience can be improved by reducing throughput. If you’ve not yet tried Opera Max, we encourage you to give the app a try and see just how much data you can save.

Here’s the full press release:

As of today, 14 OEMs, including Samsung and Xiaomi, have embedded Opera’s data-management app, Opera Max, on their smartphones. With the new partnerships with Asian OEMs – Acer, Hisense and TWZ, Opera now expects more than 100 million Android phones to be shipped with integrated Opera Max by 2017.

Opera Max reduces data consumption across most apps on Android phones by as much as 50%, offering users more affordable mobile internet access. Users who are avid Instagram, YouTube or Netflix users can save up to 60% of the data usually spent on these apps without a noticeable loss of quality.

Many users are wary of using mobile data for fear of spending too much or exceeding their data caps. We see OEMs responding to this and stepping up to lower the barrier to mobile internet access by providing a data-optimization solution on their devices – Sergey Lossev, Product Manager for Opera Max.

Opera is working with manufacturers around the world, including Acer, Cherry Mobile, Evercoss, Fly, Hisense, Mobiistar, Micromax, Oppo, Prestigio, Samsung, Symphony, Tecno, TWZ and Xiaomi.

Opera’s technology tackles mobile infrastructure challenges

The growing adoption of smartphones has outpaced the expansion of mobile infrastructure in many mobile-first markets such as India, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Latin America, as well as across Africa. People are consuming more content than ever before, including streaming videos, image-rich social and news apps, which are the biggest data hogs for users.

“Compression technology is the key to migrating the next billion mobile internet users to the smartphones, and solutions like Opera Max directly help users deal with the challenging mobile infrastructure and expensive data packages,” adds Lossev.

The Opera Max app is also available as a free download from Google Play.

About Opera Software ASA

Opera enables more than 350 million internet consumers worldwide to connect with the content and services that matter most to them. Opera also helps publishers monetize their content through advertising and advertisers reach the audiences that build value for their businesses, capitalizing on a global consumer audience reach that exceeds 1 billion.