Opera has announced that they’ve submitted their Opera Mini browser to Apple’s App Store. They’ve chosen to make this submission process very public, even putting an “Opera Mini Countup” page on their website that counts the seconds since the application was submitted to Apple.

Opera Mini uses server-side rendering which Opera claims can load web pages up to six times faster. But, the best feature by far is its ability to search the contents of a web page — something I’ve been waiting for Apple to implement since day one.

Whether Apple will accept the application remains to be seen. But, judging by the fact that Opera has decided to make this process so public, I have a feeling they don’t expect it to be accepted. I don’t know why else they would put a counter on their website publicly displaying how long it takes for Apple to reject or approve it.

I truly hope Apple approves it, even if it takes a rejection followed by public outcry for it to happen. I just want Apple to be forced to innovate again. They currently have the best mobile browser on the best mobile platform and without someone else to push them along I’m afraid they’ll be happy to sit where they are.