Opera Software has launched both a Mobile Store and a Publisher Portal to distribute apps across all major mobile platforms, including Android, BlackBerry, Java, Symbian, Windows and Palm. 

The new Opera Mobile Store, powered by Appia whose catalog already has 140,000 paid and free apps, has a Speed Dial link in Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers making it accessible by more than 100 million users.

Appia is the rebranded PocketGear, the world's largest open app marketplace and teaming with Opera in this revenue-sharing deal is in line with its new focus - shifting from being consumer-oriented to being a "white-label" app store platform for mobile operators, handset manufacturers and mobile portals.

According to Reuters, which cites February 2011 statistics from Web analytics firm StatCounter, Opera is the world's most used mobile browser controlling 21.2 percent of the market, putting it ahead of iPhone, Nokia and Android browsers which have 15 to 18 percent market shares. As this map shows it reaches parts of the world where iPhone and Android don't yet dominate:

The Opera Mobile Store storefront experience is customized to each user's phone, providing a tailored catalog based on the phone's operating system, local language and currency. During testing in February the store had more than 15 million users achieving more than 700,000 downloads per day, putting it among top 10 mobile application stores globally.

The Opera Publisher Portal has also been launched providing developers with an easy way to get their applications onto the Opera Mobile Store. In line with other app stores it offers developers a 70% share of the net revenue. 

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