MWC: Opera maxes out data

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, Opera Software launched Opera Max, a free data savings app that compresses data across applications on your mobile device including video, text and images.

The Opera Max beta is now rolling out to Android users in the United States and Europe who pre-registered for Opera Max on a first-come, first-served basis.

Opera Max will be launched in other regions worldwide, gradually. Opera provided the following information: Opera Max is a free app that extends the life of your data plan by up to 50%, especially if you use video and image-heavy apps such as Vine, Instagram, Vevo or Flipboard. For example, if you pay $40 a month for a 1GB data plan, using Opera Max on your smartphone can allow you to consume up to 1.5 GB per month for the same cost. If you have a pre-paid data plan, pay per megabyte of use, or are roaming internationally, this app adds even more value. Opera Max is the only app that gives you significant data savings, including video, which makes up a big chunk of data usage and most apps. All this for free! How it works Once you download Opera Max, it instantaneously starts compressing and rerouting data using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to the data-savings cloud. All non-encrypted data requests (excluding websites and apps with HTTPS connections) are sent through our compression servers, which optimize video, images and websites to use less data. Opera takes privacy very seriously so Opera Max only measures how much data you use and how much data you’ve saved. Opera Max also lets you tame your apps by detecting when you are roaming so that you can prevent apps from using any expensive data. You can easily block any app from using mobile data and restrict it to using Wi-Fi only. How much data do you save Opera Max’s unique user interface gives you a timeline of your apps usage and how much you saved because of Opera Max by month or by day. Your timeline will show usage and savings by individual app as well as in total. Why compression? As users gravitate heavily toward mobile data, specifically apps that are image and video heavy, data usage across these apps piles up in no time. Compression and optimizing mobile data is key to giving users a better experience and increased cost efficiency. Mobile video traffic was more than 50% of overall mobile data traffic in 2013. Vine, Instagram, YouTube‚Ķ it’s all about video nowadays. Video uses a lot of data, and we make videos lighter, which means you can watch more video and get a better user experience. Opera has a long history of innovation with compression, being the first to launch a mobile browser, Opera Mini, in 2005 that compressed browser data. Opera Mini has gone to become one of the most popular mobile browsers and has 248 million users globally today. ‚”From Mini to Max, Opera has been the trailblazer in compression technology covering both mobile devices and desktop,‚” says Sergey Lossev, Head of Product, Opera Max. ‚”That expertise, combined with my personal frustration at running over my data plan less than 10 days into the month, using apps while commuting to San Francisco, prompted me to create Opera Max.‚” ‚”As ‘kings of compression’, we think Opera Max is the next step in the evolution of this technology, which will intelligently compress data across apps, not just your browser,‚” adds Lossev. ‚”Try it out to see how much more you can get from your data plan.‚” Opera announced pre-registration for Opera Max on February 18 and since then has received an overwhelming response for the app.

*