Apple only approved Opera Mini for the iPhone on Monday, but already the application is the number one free download in all 22 iPhone Apps Stores around the globe. Wow.The Opera Mini browser is the number one free download in 22 different countries, including the U.S., U.K, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Denmark, and Australia. That's amazing.

I am not surprised that Opera is such a big hit overseas. Opera Mini and Opera Mobile have a much greater penetration in European markets, and consumers are, in general, more aware of the Opera brand. I am slightly shocked that it is the number one download in the U.S., though I suppose that speaks to the amount of interest people have in browsing alternatives for the iPhone.

Up until this week, the iPhone's Safari browser was the only real browsing option on the device. Apple has forbade developers from offering applications that it says duplicate the functionality of the iPhone's native features.

Opera Mini works differently from Safari, and perhaps that's why Apple approved it. Safari uses WebKit and renders HTML web sites on the handset itself. Opera Mini uses a proxy server and compression technology. It renders the HTML web site on its own servers, and then pushes a compressed image of the web site to the iPhone. The iPhone itself simply displays the image.

Whatever the reason behind its approval, Opera fans are obviously showing their love -- or at least interest on -- Opera Mini for the iPhone.

[Via Engadget]