Sorry folks, Opera Mini won't be coming to the iPhone

In a New York Times interview this week, Opera's Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner said Opera Mini has been ported to the iPhone, but cannot be released.

Though the issue was only touched upon briefly in the interview, it confirms the restrictive nature of Apple's SDK that developers such as Mozilla's Rob Sayre have complained about. The NYT said Opera Mini couldn't be released because it competes with Apple's Safari.

AppleInsider reported a similar situation last month, when the Podcaster application created by Almerica was rejected on the grounds that it duplicated the functionality of iTunes.

In Almerica's blog, it says, "Apple had nothing in the terms prohibiting developers from duplicating features currently available on desktop application. I followed all the guidelines and made sure everything is in the correct place. Yet Apple denies me because I allow users to download podcasts just like iTunes."

As of October 17, a version of Podcaster was being worked on for Android. A preview version of Opera Mini was released for Android in April.