Engineers that spent many years working on challenging problems in highly performance-critical areas of the core engine might not be all that interested in doing UI design on iOS.
I guess this depends on whether there will be more to Opera than a Chrome skin. Sigh.
Webkit ≠ Chrome. I think it's important that web developers do all they can to stop that idea becoming widespread, before people think all other browsers are just a knocked off version of Chrome.
Opera is basing its new browser on Chromium specifically, not just WebKit.
...which is why I used the term "it depends". If they knock off Chrome, they don't need back-end C++ programmers. If they don't, they'll need them where they want to technically innovate.
But apparently, it really will be a Chrome knockoff now.
To do what, make more Angry Birds clones?
Engineers that spent 15 years working on every possible mobile device aren't suddenly magically unable to start working on a new one.