Opera is pulling its Presto browser engine and replacing it with WebKit. Opera Software today put the world on notice that its Presto rendering engine will be making a disappearing act. Going forward, Opera will make a "gradual transition" to WebKit, as well as Chromium, for just about every upcoming browser release for smartphones and computers, the Norwegian browser maker announced today. The engine replacement was mentioned as an aside to the fact that Opera's collection of browsers across all products now boast 300 million users. "300 million marks the first lap, but the race goes on," says Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera Software. "On the final stretch up to 300 million users, we have experienced the fastest acceleration in user growth we have ever seen. Now, we are shifting into the next gear to claim a bigger piece of the pie in the smartphone market." To get a bigger piece of the pie, Opera Software feels it needs to move away from its in-house engine and embrace WebKit, the same as used by Safari (Apple) and Chrome (Google). The somewhat shocking announcement could lead to a more standards-compliant web, as WebKit will drive three major browsers when the transition is complete. "The WebKit engine is already very good, and we aim to take part in making it even better. It supports the standards we care about, and it has the performance we need," says CTO of Opera Software, HÃ¥kon Wium Lie. "It makes more sense to have our experts working with the open source communities to
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