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[The Faceless Master]

Opera's CEO will swim from Norway to the USA
Oslo, Norway - April 21, 2005

An overly excited Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software, today proclaimed at an internal company meeting that if the download numbers of the new Opera 8 Web browser reach 1 million within the first four days of the launch, he will swim from Norway to the USA with only one stop-over for a cup of hot chocolate at his mother's house in his home country, Iceland. Opera's communications department could obviously not resist to make such a bold and inarguably over-confident statement public.

Opera's new Web browser, Opera 8, was released Tuesday, and the massive response had Opera's download servers kneeling an hour after the launch. Still, the download numbers of Opera 8 reached 600 000 in the first 48 hours.

"A lot of people had great difficulties downloading Opera 8 on Tuesday because the traffic on the servers was simply too high," says Carsten Fischer, VP Desktop, Opera Software. "When download numbers reached 120 per second one hour after the release, our servers had serious problems dealing with all the requests. We had prepared for heavy traffic, but this exceeded our wildest dreams."

Opera has now installed additional servers with increased capacity, and it was the download counter showing 600 000 downloads in 48 hours that sparked Mr Tetzschner's enthusiasm and thus his courageous promise to boldly swim where no man has swum before.

"I am not sure he realizes how cold the Norwegian Sea is in April," says Anne Stavnes, Human Resource Manager, Opera Software. "However, having seen Jon in his red beach attire before, I am not sure if swimming to the USA is scarier than exposing people to this sight."

Opera 8 is launched under the campaign heading "Speed, Security, Simplicity" to firmly position Opera as the fast, secure and easy-to-use browser. However, Opera's communications department clearly sees the potential for two parallel campaigns with their CEO's daring act of oceanic bravery:

* Opera 8: Speed, Security, Simplicity
* Opera's CEO: Speedos, Shrinkage, Spoke-to-soon-icity

Speculations are running high at Opera Software, and it is expected that making von Tetzchner's promise public will make it impossible for the couragous CEO to back out. The challenge will end on Saturday at 0900 a.m. CET, but as we are now moving into the weekend the download figures will be revealed on Monday at www.opera.com.
About Opera Software ASA

Opera Software ASA is an industry leader in the development of Web browser technology, targeting the desktop, smartphone, PDA, home media and vertical markets. Partners include companies such as IBM, Nokia, Sony, Motorola, Adobe, Macromedia, Symbian, Canal+ Technologies, Sony Ericsson, Kyocera, Sharp, Motorola Metroworks, MontaVista Software, BenQ, Sendo and AMD. The Opera browser has received international recognition from users, industry experts and media for being faster, smaller and more standards-compliant than other browsers.

Opera's browser technology is cross-platform and modular, and currently available on the following operating systems: Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Symbian OS, Windows Mobile, BREW, QNX, TRON, FreeBSD, Solaris and Mediahighway.

Opera Software ASA is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with development centers in Linkoping and Gothenburg, Sweden. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at www.opera.com.

 

[maharg]

Uh, how is it bold and overconfident to say you'll do something gruelling and unfun if you DO succeed? Sounds more like a defeatist attitude to me.

Hey guys, if George Bush Jr. creates a monarchy in the United States, I will stab my eye with a fork!

 

[border]

Confident? Sounds to me like he knows it won't make it. There's pretty much no way that someone could conceivably make the trip.

I downloaded it anyway. I won't install it or anything (already got Firefox), but it'd be nice to see what this goofball will actually try if Opera hits the mark.

 

[Brannon]

Oh he'll swim from Norway to the US, but it'll be aboard a cruise ship, and he'll be in the pool doing laps the entire time. Quite naturally the cruise ship will stop in port at Iceland where he will get off, get the coffee and chocolate from his mother and return to continue doing laps in the pool until the ship stops in the States.

Thinking outside the box is awesome!

 

[Hooker]

Yeah, I actually bought this version, was only €23 with the student discount

 

[Drensch]

Opera is the best browser imho. Hopefully more people will start using it.

 

[Shinobi]

Oh he'll swim from Norway to the US, but it'll be aboard a cruise ship, and he'll be in the pool doing laps the entire time. Quite naturally the cruise ship will stop in port at Iceland where he will get off, get the coffee and chocolate from his mother and return to continue doing laps in the pool until the ship stops in the States.

Thinking outside the box is awesome!

3M oughta hire your ass. :lol

And I've been an Opera fan for years, despite some of it's wierd flaws...looking forward to see how Opera 8 works.

 

[mrkapawutzis]

They're still charging for a browser? I don't know, something about paying for a browser just seems wrong, especially in this day and age of firefox and it's ability to make a dent in the IE monopoly. By the way, what are the differences, if any, between the paid version and the free one?

 

[Drensch]

The browser is free. But you can get additional functionality if you pay for a liscense.

 

[border]

Paid version does not display advertisements as you browse. Neither version supports extensions, though.

 

[Drensch]

Define extensions.

 

[SpoonyBard]

Opera 8 seems to be quite a bit faster than Opera 7. I don't really need voice commands or most of the other new stuff, but the trash can at the tab bar is very handy. Some sites that didn't support Opera 7 fully, like gmail, also work perfectly now.