Joe Wilcox Opera Quotations

Look at the auto industry. Do people fault Jaguar for selling fewer cars than Dodge? ... Opera in some ways is a Cadillac browser. You have a lot of extra features built in. The volume might be with the Caravans and the SUVs, but that doesn't mean there isn't money to be made on the other vehicles. Of course, the analogy here is with Web browsers.

There are a number of ways Opera can make money off the browser, but all that requires volume. Removing the price tag and the banner ads increases the likelihood that more people will use the browser. More eyeballs means more revenue off the browser without charging for or putting banner ads in people's faces.

The Opera folks are betting their browser has reached a threshold of popularity where they can unshackle it from the fees. This clearly is a volume play that could pay off if enough people use the browser. Opera would be able to drive revenue through affiliate relationships, for example.

The response to Opera's free offer was probably a catalyst in this position. It may have confirmed a strategy that the Opera folks were already thinking about.

Some people might speculate that Opera couldn't compete by charging when AOL, Apple, Microsoft, Mozilla and most other browser developers give away software for free. Not so. Just the opposite is true,