The wait for Opera Mobile 9.5 is (almost) over

The long-awaited Opera Mobile 9.5 is nearly ready for the public. Opera has announced that an initial beta test is slated for July 15 at www.opera.com, and we'll all be able to get our grubby little hands on it.

Opera also addresses what's taken so long:

Some versions of Opera Mobile 9.5 are already shipping on great phones like the HTC Touch Diamond, and some of you have asked why we wouldn't be able to release it publically yet. As you probably know, releasing a version that works on a large variety of phones is more complex than making it work on one specific phone. You should also expect a few differences between the versions that are pre-installed on phones and the public version of Opera Mobile 9.5.

So, the beta version may contain a few differences than what was seen in a hands-on review back in February.