Its hard-line stance against Flash (how come no one ever talks about Apple banning Silverlight as well?)  notwithstanding, there have been steady signs that Apple is being more open to different kinds of apps that once perhaps would not have passed muster in its iTunes app store. Examples include MapQuest competing with Google Maps and Slacker, Rhapsody and others offering alternatives to iTunes purchases (although really representing “coopetition”). Indeed, if Apple is, at its heart, a platform company as Steve Jobs says, then that’s the way it should be. And both Apple customers and the company benefit.

Regardless of why Apple approved Opera mini, it is an asset to the platform, perhaps a parting gift to first-generation iPhone users stuck on an EDGE network. Due to its proxy architecture, Opera mini is much faster than mobile Safari. It also offers great Web site fidelity, and (somewhat less efficient than in the desktop version) tabbed browsing, but can’t work around the prohibition of Flash content. On the other hand, it doesn’t use the universal pinch and zoom gestures, and there are times I wish it allowed greater levels of zoom although I found the text to be quite readable. It’s somewhat counterintuitive that Apple allowed this “commodity” browser – so widespread in its availability on not only smartphones but many feature phones – onto the app store. But I’m sure customers won’t be complaining.