Opera released Opera Mobile 9.7 for Windows Mobile over a week was great advancement for Opera now that they have to worry about having to fight on the Smartphone space with SkyFire that is now finally out that supports a true full web experience when it comes to content (flash, flex, silverlight, java, heavy ajax), IEM6 (when it comes to Windows Mobile) and soon enough with Firefox Mobile that will bring addons to Mobile Browsing.  their response so far relies on Opera Turbo that is a network traffic compressor so you get a much faster browsing experience and in its built in Widget Platform that now has been highlighted by Opera with the introduction of a Widget Manager.

They introduced the Widget Manager as a way to keep happy mobile carriers as they depend on them to continue dominating the space and because having it separated means the mobile browser will not suffer from crashes related to the widgets and that the widgets will be able to work without the process from the mobile browser gets in the way.

Another good thing about having the Widgets Manager is that you get a Opera Widgets springboard that will drive you use these widgets more and to use more of these widgets, as it increases its ease of use and convenience factor.

Right now it is anybody’s guess if Opera Mobile 9.7 will indeed come with Flash support but i hope it does because, it will be harder and harder for Opera to keep up with the Windows Mobile market as it is the one that got not only a lot of mobile browsers to choose from but the most powerful from any platform as Windows Mobile is getting the most powerful hardware. Opera Widgets will serve as a edge for symbian and Windows Mobile phones from 5 to 6.1, but starting with Windows Mobile 6.5 they would do little good as Windows Mobile comes with its own Native Widget Engine and one that looks to be a lot more powerful that the one from Opera. and as stated also comes with the new IE Mobile 6 that will come with Flash Support.

Opera Mobile 9.7 Beta

via CNET