Opera Slows Its Development On The iOS Platform (betanews.com)

Reader BrianFagioli writes: After searching for Opera in the Apple App Store, I noticed something odd -- none of the company's iOS browsers (Opera Mini and Opera Coast) had been updated in 2017. Since we are almost halfway through the year, I decided to ask Opera what was up. Shockingly, the company told me that it no longer has a team working on iOS. An Opera employee by the name of 'Rosi' sent me a tweet this morning, making the revelation. While the desktop version of the browser is still in development, the company has chosen to abandon its efforts on iOS. To show just how bad it is, the Opera Mini browser hasn't been updated in almost a year. Opera Coast was updated in December of 2016, however -- almost six months ago.
Update: Opera has clarified that while they're not currently working on iOS, they still plan to support it.

Comments

iOS "Browsers" are all Safari skins

[mrbene]

Given that all browsers on iOS are required to use WebKit, and Opera's investment in Presto and fallout for supporting Blink, I can see why Opera would cut their losses and cease development on what is ultimately only a skin for iOS functionality.

Also, I expect that the additional complexity of offering an app-specific VPN to iOS users factored in to the decision.

Only Reskinned Safaru

[Bing Tsher E]

The only thing third party developers are allowed to do is reskin Safari, so it shouldn't be a surprise if the entities who make good, even better, browsers on other platforms just drop out.