Last week it was reported that the software company responsible for creating the Opera web browser had submitted a version of Opera mini to the App Store and had it turned down.

The story eventually snowballed into a debate about how Opera should have known the rules of the App Store prior to submitting the application; the author of the originating story has now gone back to the Opera CEO for clarification.

So I went back to Mr. von Tetzchner for more details. He said that the development of the iPhone browser was more an “internal project” of some engineers than a product that management was committed to introducing. Indeed, development was halted after the company looked at the details of the license agreement in Apple’s software development kit and realized that it would not be permitted.

“We stopped the work because of the prohibitive license,” to Mr. von Tetzchner wrote in an e-mail.