The mobile browser wars are getting intense, with Opera’s rlease of Opera Mobile for Android coming soon.  The company announced its plans to launch the mobile browser within the month at a conference this morning, noting it will be available for all Android devices.

Two new features are included in the news app, one to make the mobile browser speedy, and another for zooming options.  The details around Hardware Acceleration so far aren’t very telling of the actual mechanisms behind it, but it leverages the power of your phone to incorporate more PC-like browsing capabilities for speed and effeciency.

It’s because of the Hardware Acceleration that Opera is able to incorporate improved viewing options, like pinch to zoom.  This brings a known desktop feature straight to Android, with the ability to choose your own level of zoom.  From what Opera says, it’s a fluid zoom experience, letting you control page-width and honing in on the text that can be so difficult to read on a mobile screen.

That being said, we’re sure to see Hardware Acceleration making way for more usability features in the future.  This can really enable Opera to gain a competitive edge amongst mobile browsers, improving overall usability.  Hopefully this is something that can also translate to Android tablets, which may have to focus on mobile browsing, as the Android Market integration has yet to be fully worked out.

Opera already has a browser for Android–Opera Mini.  It was one of the first third party browsers to appear in the Android Market, which now has a range of of mobile browsers to choose from, including the recently launched Firefox 4 Beta, Dolphin, and Skyfire with Flash support.

Read here for my earlier commentary on mobile browsing, where the opportunities for platform owners and developers lie, and why it’s ultimately a driving factor in the direction of the mobile app economy.