Opera may be an underdog when it comes to desktop browsers, and is currently losing out even to newcomer Google Chrome in terms of market share despite being around for much longer. But when it comes to mobile browsers its Mini software is one of the biggest names out there. Now the company is hoping to build on that success and make its way into one of the hottest selling smartphones.

At next week's Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, the Norwegian firm will demonstrate the latest version of Opera Mini running on the iPhone and other devices. The browser is supposedly up to six times faster than mobile Safari, due to the compression technology used in the background, which would also relief wireless carriers from high iPhone traffic strain on their networks – Opera cites a 90% decrease.

Among the features Opera hopes will attract iPhone owners are support for tabbed browsing, bookmark syncing, password manager, and a feature that provides direct access to favorites called speed dial. Of course, there is one big caveat: Opera hasn't yet submitted the browser for approval by Apple, and it isn't saying when it will. They are just hoping "Apple will not deny their users a choice in Web browsing experience."