Opera Max is expected to be installed on 100 million devices by 2017

For those us who have limits on the amount of data we’re allowed to use, or who don’t have fast connections, watching videos on Netflix and YouTube can be a struggle. Either we hit our data caps too quickly, or videos take forever to load, both of which are definitely first-world problems, but immensely annoying nonetheless. That’s why Opera Max has started to become so popular, with companies like Samsung and Xiaomi bundling the app with some of their devices. Basically, the app uses data compression to reduce the data these videos consume by around 60%, with all other types of content having their data consumption reduced by 50%. Obviously this could be extremely useful to a lot of people out there, which is why Opera thinks the app will be installed on 100 million smartphones by 2017. 

The Opera Max data compression software has become a useful feature packed into some of this year’s lower cost smartphones and Opera has today declared that the company has partnerships with a total of 14 Android handset manufacturers. We have already seen Opera Max appear in recent handsets from Samsung and Xiaomi, among others, and Opera has just announced three new partners: Acer, Hisense and TWZ. This means that additional handsets with compression support pre-installed should be heading our way soon. As a result, Opera expects that its software will be installed on more than 100 million Android phones by the year 2017. Opera boasts that its software can save on as much as 50 percent of a user’s data consumption for general browsing, while specific services from the likes of YouTube and Netflix can reach up to a 60 percent saving. If you’re curious about how the system works, Opera Max acts as a server that intercepts unencrypted data traffic, routing it through Opera’s servers where bandwidth-saving compression is applied to images and video, along with website loading optimizations. See the video below for more details. While not really useful for those with unlimited, high-speed data connections, Opera Max can help consumers with limited data squeeze the most out of their plan, while those with questionable connections can also benefit from lighter, faster loading web pages and videos. Keep your eyes out for more devices with Opera Max support out of the box in the near future.