Review: Makayama Fires The Next Shot In The Mobile Browser War With Touch Browser.

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You may not realize it, but there is a war going on right now. No, I am not talking about Iraq or Afghanistan (come on folks, this is a Windows Mobile site, not politics). No, this war is being fought much closer to home. The battlefield is none other than your Windows Mobile device, and the war is for domination of the mobile Internet.

Until recently, your choices were slim and offered little variation. Of course, there was Pocket Internet Explorer, the sometimes functional mainstay of mobile browsing since time before time. And there was Opera, which was PIE’s main, if not only, competitor. But that was about all. Then, all of a sudden in the last few months, it seems as though mobile browsers have been popping out of the woodwork. Every day, there is a new entrant with a fresh approach. I am not even going to try to name them all, but there are probably close to a dozen browsers in various stages of release right now (I did not actually count), and more on the horizon.

The latest force to toss their hat into the ever muddled ring is Makayama, who released their finger-friendly Touch Browser earlier this month. With Touch Browser, Makayama took a unique approach to mobile web browsing. Rather than release a new web browsing interface, as many companies are doing, they have released a simple add on for Pocket Internet Explorer. A clever idea. But will it work? Hit the jump and we’ll find out.

Since Touch Browser is not a standalone browser, but an overlay for Pocket Internet Explorer (which is actually now called Internet Explorer Mobile, but I am going to cling to the past and refer to it as Pocket Internet Explorer or PIE), it shares all of the same limitations as PIE. This means it does not resize web pages to fit the screen, it does not zoom in for easier reading (and out for browsing) and it cannot access a lot of modern day web content (including video), to name just a few of the limitations this aging program has shown.

With PIE already starting well behind the competition, one wonders why Makaama chose to use this as a base rather than develop a fresh new browser of their own. Yet that is exactly what they did. Touch Broswer relies exclusively on the PIE engine (and will not work with other browsers) to add a single feature to your browsing experience: finger scrolling. Call up any web page on your device and Touch Browser will allow you to drag it up, down, and all around the screen with just the touch (or flick) of a finger. Pretty cool. But is this enough to justify an entire program simply to add a single feature? Spb Software House did not think so. While they saw this as an important feature, they packaged it into Pocket Plus 4, where it is just one of several PIE enhancements (and PIE enhancements are a small part of that package as well.

Additionally, unlike Pocket Plus, which relies on the PIE interface, but simply adds additional features to it, Touch Browser is a completely separate program, which relies upon the PIE engine to operate. In other words, it gives the appearance of opening a new program, without actually creating its own interface. This would be fine if it continued to offer all of the functionality of PIE, however, it does not even go that far. I never thought these words would come out of my mouth (or fingers) but Touch Browser actually cripples PIE. Let’s take a closer look at what I mean by that:

• There is no way to change the Home Screen away from the MSNBC Touch Browser Home Screen. Sure, there is a setting to enter a new home screen under the options button (shown above). But this setting does not actually change anything.
• The “X” button does not work consistently.

• You cannot use your own SIP with the program. You must use the program’s full screen keyboard, which can be arranged alphabetically with numbers on top, or with the vowels removed and placed on top. For those of us (and by that I mean, all of us) used to the QWERTY keyboard layout, this simply makes no sense at all.
• The program, which relies on the Microsoft Compact Framework, is slow to load, slow to render pages and graphics, and just gobbles up your memory.

• There is no way to access the PIE menu. I stumbled upon the tap and hold context menu, which allows you to at least access your mobile favorites, but that feature is far too hidden, and does not give you access to the full PIE menu.
• There is no way to change or disable the default beeps and sounds which are heard when you tap a button or access the keyboard.
• It Cannot be set as your default browser. When you click from an email or another program, it will still use PIE to open the link. There is no way to tell your device to use Touch Browser instead.
• Once you have begun to navigate, there is no way to return to your home page.

I could continue to list my grievances here, but I think you get the point. Instead, I will simply direct you to Werner’s fantastic article, in which he thoroughly lists all of the problems with this program.

The bottom line is that Touch Browser might have been seen as a major step in the right direction if Makayama had released it two or three years ago. But they didn’t. They released it today, in the middle of the hottest mobile browser war in the history of Windows Mobile. At a time when every browser is striving to out-feature the next, and finger friendly controls have become almost the basic unit of measurement, not a feature which sets a program apart. Even if Touch Broswer worked well, which it does not, it would still be too little too late for Makayama.

I think I will take a pass on this one. Despite the finger-friendliness of the interface, there were simply too many problems to recommend it in today’s wide open mobile browsing environment.
What I Liked: Nice finger-friendly controls

What Needs Improvement: There is far too much to list here. In general, however, Makayama needs to go back to the drawing board if they want to have any hope of participating (let alone) surviving in the mobile browser wars.

Where To Purchase: Makayama

Price: $14.95

Trial: None

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