But where will that move leave consumers?  That's one of the chief questions that was on our mind when we caught up with Rolf Assev, Chief Strategy Officer at Opera Software.  Understandably, Opera was a bit reticent to deliver specifics about their planned deployment (such as the timeframe), but Mr. Assev did deliver some interesting insight on the deal and how Opera plans to approach its upcoming advertising endeavors.

Our unabridged interview follows:

DailyTech: Opera has the world's largest handset browsing user base (almost 50 million users), an impressive feat for a company with no exclusive phone platform (like Google or Apple). How hard will it be to roll out advertising without alienating customers unaccustomed to mobile advertising? What kinds of perks can customers expect from Opera in return for tolerating mobile ads?

Rolf Assev: This is our key challenge - a challenge we have not decided upon how to deal with yet. Our key focus is to give our users the best internet experience. We will never compromise on user experience.

There are ways of doing this - and we have tried out different versions. I think Google has been able to do this in a nice way on desktop - where the ads they pops up on search results are not too annoying - as they are very relevant - and sometimes also useful. This is in reality the one-million-dollar question.

And I am happy to say that we have some ideas on how to do this - but it is too early to share this now.

DT: AdMarvel is based in California, while Opera is primarily in Norway. Will communication or language barriers create any issues with the partnership, or does modern technology make this relatively trivial?

RA: We do not see any problems here. We have had our own office in U.S. for many years - and today we have 15 persons tied to our Mt.View office. Opera is not primarily in Norway - we have most of our people outside Norway - in 12 different offices across the globe. The beauty about the internet - is that one easily can work across all continents.

DT: Opera doesn't acquire companies as often as some of America's larger tech firms (like Google or Microsoft). What made it decide to acquire AdMarvel in particular, rather than merely growing an internal mobile advertising unit?

RA: We believe that Mobile Advertising is coming out the Silicon Valley and that it is natural to partner up with a company which is in the middle of this. We have tested many different alternatives over the last 9 months - everything from ads served directly from search providers, through ads served from different ad networks - to Admarvel. Admarvel has proved to be the most efficient partner in this respect - securing Opera the best ad, on right place and right time - at the best price.

Opera has the world's best people to make the best browser - we do not have any advertising knowledge. Therefore we think it is more productive to let our people keep focusing on what we are good at - and then rather acquire Admarvel that has proven to have a very strong expertise in Mobile Advertising.

DT: Does AdMarvel have plans with Opera to leverage Flash 10.1, coming soon to handsets, for Flash-animated ads?

RA: We have not yet decided what kind of ads - nor where or how these ads will be served. Key focus is to secure the best user experience and that we have the strongest Privacy policy in the industry.

Our users can be certain that we will not compromise on user experience nor privacy.

DT: How soon can mobile users expect to see ads?

RA:  We are saying that mobile ads still is in the early age. We are still experimenting to secure the best internet experience. As soon as we have decided upon the golden recipe on how we are going to do this - we will come back. Key focus for Opera is to secure the best internet experience and that privacy for our users is secured.

DailyTech would like to thank Mr. Assev for his help on this story.  We plan on keeping up with the story and will let our readers know as soon as more details (deployment dates, ad format, etc.) are ready to be shared.