Opera more popular than iPhone

Norway's Opera Software has overtaken Apple's iPhone browser as the world's most popular mobile browser, web analytics firm StatCounter said.

Of all internet pages that were downloaded to mobile devices globally in May, 24.6 per cent were downloaded through Opera's browser and 22.3 per cent via iPhone, StatCounter said.

The top spot has see-sawed this year.

"Opera began the year in the No 1 slot but iPhone overtook it in February," Aodhan Cullen, chief executive of StatCounter, said in a statement. "It will be fascinating to watch how this battle plays out over the year."

Opera sells its browser to many cellphone makers and operators, and consumers can directly download it for free, while the Apple browser's ranking reflects only iPhone users surfing the internet.

Nokia, the world's top cellphone maker, retained third place in mobile browsers with 17.9 per cent of the market, StatCounter said.

StatCounter said its research data is based on four billion pages loaded per month.