Opera will be offering an exclusive preview of Opera Mini on the iPhone at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week. Opera Mini is known for its server-side compression technology, which results in, according to the developer, significantly faster Web-page loading and reduces data surcharges.

"We are thrilled to offer journalists and partners an exclusive preview of Opera Mini for iPhone during the year's biggest mobile event," said Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder, Opera Software, in a statement. "This is a unique opportunity to introduce the fast, feature-rich Opera Mini experience for the iPhone, and to showcase our latest beta releases of Opera Mobile and Opera Mini on other platforms and devices."

It's great that Opera is showing off an alternative to the iPhone's mobile version of Safari. The big question is: Will Apple allow Opera Mini, a direct compeiter, to make its way onto the App Store?