[vetler]

> I always wondered why, for the longest time, they thought competing with Chrome and Firefox was a good idea

Because Jon von Tetzschner was and is passionate about building a good browser, and didn't really care that the odds were (are?) against him.

But when Opera is brought up, the focus is always on the Desktop browser. However, the money was always in devices - Opera has traditionally been really big on a plethora of devices.

Also, Opera both on desktop and mobile, has long been big in markets other than the US, especially eastern Europe.