The opera browser for Android, which has been in beta for a few months, is finally available for the masses.

Opera Software has started releasing the finalized version of its WebKit-based mobile browser for Android OS.

Available as a free download from Google Play, Opera for Android boasts a few popular features from the OS' desktop version.

Microsoft has hit a deal with rival Opera Software to get its search engine Bing incorporated into the most recent version of the Opera web browser- Opera 10.60.

Bing, which can be seen as the default search engine in the latest version of Opera 10.60, will also reportedly be incorporated into future versions of Opera web browser.

Commenting on the topic, Microsoft Bing GM Jon Tinter said, "It's great to see Bing as a choice within another of the major browser products out there, and we hope all you Opera fans out there will go get the beta and give Bing a try."

Jon von Tetzchner, co-founder of Norwegian software maker Opera, has said that the blend of mobile browsers and HTML 5 would allow web-based applications compete better with native applications.

He said that both consumers and developers face difficulties due to the blend of fragmentation and native applications on smartphones as it makes more difficult for consumers to switch to a new smartphone based on a different OS and developers have to make unduly strong efforts to develop an application for different platforms. He suggested that the use of Web could fix both those issues.

Norwegian software maker Opera has claimed that more than 2.6 million Apple iPhone owners used its internet browser

Opera co-founder Jon von Tetzchner said that more iPhone owners were using Opera Mini than handset’s default Safari Browser to browse the web. Opera Mini accounts for around 26 per cent of the worldwide mobile web browser as compared with 20.1 per cent enjoyed by Safari browser.

Opera Mini for the iPhone is currently available free of charge at the App Store.

Web browser Opera announced on Thursday that downloads of its browser jumped to more than double after Microsoft Corp. provided its users with a choice of Web software.

From March 1, Microsoft started offering its customers a choice of 12 browsers to settle European Commission antitrust charges. Earlier the software giant had been compelling its customers to install its own Internet Explorer browser as a default.

On Wednesday, Opera Software ASA announced that the company will be unveiling an iPhone version of the Opera Mini browser for mobile phones at an international technology conference sometime during next week.

As has been confirmed by Opera spokeswoman Katrin Jaakson, although the plans for an iPhone browser are definite, the approval to distribute it from Apple's iPhone application store is still to be obtained.