PhoneReport spoke to Opera Software at a seminar held at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Members of Opera Software have been visiting universities worldwide educating interested students of the history and future of the web, the browser industry, open Web standards, web applications, and the role of mobile web browsing.

We attended the seminar to ask few questions that we and many of the readers were interested in, regarding the present and future of mobile web, especially concerning Opera Mobile and Opera Mini.

Jan Standal, Director Product Management, Opera software, when asked if the Opera Mobile 9.5 we saw on the HTC Touch Diamond will be present on the upcoming Google Android phone, the HTC Dream G1, said that the browser will not be included in the first batch of Google Android phones, but perhaps in the future it might, adding that a Java port of Opera Mini will certainly be pre-installed on the Dream.

Standal also told us that the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 will incorporate Opera Mobile 9.5, as it has been disclosed recently by the company.

A question that has been asked for a long time is how soon will we see a new Opera Mobile version for S60 and UIQ. Standal apologized for the fact that Opera Mobile hasn't been updated since version 8.65 has been released, as it has been way too long. He added that it will still be a while before a new version is released, but what they are preparing right now is "really cool".

Standal stated that touch [touchscreen interfaces] is something that is coming up, and that Opera has been working a lot on it, as we can see in Opera Mobile 9.5 on the HTC Touch Diamond, and we can expect a "lot of cool things coming up for touch", and the same applies to the upcoming S60 Touch UI, also known as the fifth edition of the S60 software platform.

We asked if a native application format for each software platform is in the works for Opera Mini, but unfortunately, only Google Android will have Opera Mini it a format other than JAVA and BREW, but that too is a JAVA port.

For the next versions of Opera MIni you can expect more functionality on Opera link which is a service that exports all your Bookmarks, Speed Dial, and notes and let's you use them in Opera browser for the computer, Opera Mobile, and Opera Mini. You will be able to  carry the same browser experience around, which is something we can't wait to test!

Update: Here are some of the features Charles McCathieNevile, Chief Standards Officer, Opera Software, said on his comment bellow: "coming up are typed history (so the things you typed into your browser are available as options when mini offers to auto-complete URIs you are typing) and some other neat stuff".