Yep, the problem with their brand is that it's not Google or Apple. If Apple or Google were to release a clone of Opera tomorrow it would have significant higher usage stats and buzz.
Lets face it, as much as we would like to believe we judge technology based on it's merits, the truth of the matter is we're just in High School 2.0 and what really matters is that we're hanging out with the cool kids. In this case Opera isn't a part of the in-crowd, a real shame.
I don't think this is true, at least in the general case. When Chrome first came out (and I was still using Firefox), I downloaded it to test it out, but didn't stick with it, because it wasn't immediately compelling. I came back to it occasionally, and after about 6 months they had turned it into a really great browser, much speedier than Firefox.
If you look at the usage trend during the first few months, you'll notice that it starts high and curves down, then slopes back up again. I think this supports my argument. The reason that it gets a lot of share has little to do with branding so much as the fact that they made it in to a great browser after a lot of hard work on their part.
The litmus test to my observation is that if this is really true, then Opera should pick up a lot of usage share from people like me who switch between browsers based on the latest and greatest. I remember trying out 10.10, and although it was good, it was no where near this good.
Of course, Opera doesn't have that nice bump that Chrome does where Google puts "Hey you! Try Chrome!" on incredibly popular websites, so we'll see.
Google and Apple also have the advantage of being able to promote their respective browsers through cross-marketing. Safari is the default browser for any Apple device, and Chrome is the promoted via other Google properties. Internet Explorer has the obvious Windows advantage. Only Firefox really succeeded in fighting the same fight that Opera was fighting, and it's not surprising that both Chrome and Safari tried to ensure Firefox didn't win by improving upon the browser in one of its biggest weaknesses .... speed.
Ultimately, competition is good for the user, but a nightmare for the web developer. It was hard enough dealing with the multitude of IE versions, but today's developer needs to support the entire cross-section of users on a variety of platforms ... most of which command a non-negligible user-share.
True, but if Opera was better enough, it'd surpass them. The fact is, it's a web browser, and Google can put enough engineers on it to build a better JS engine just because they feel like it. There's not really any room for a killer idea, or at least I can't see any.
