M-commerce is a subject fraught with pitfalls. As the market for mobile payments grows, the lack of a consistent approach in accreditation and deployment of applications is hampering the release of new services, impeding the market growth and hitting us all with reduced profit opportunities and the possibility that these new services will be driven onto Wi-Fi portals.

MDA is launching an initiative to ease the path. A Workshop, later this Spring, will look at issues of accreditation, and we would like representatives from all interested and involved parties to join us in this important meeting.

Looking at the mobile supply chain, this workshop will examine the issues of conformity and sign off with handset manufacturers and Network Operators. The workshop will present the common issues encountered by developers, testing companies and content providers and invite comments from MDA members as to what needs to change and how the industry can work together to resolve common issues such as:

• Deployment methods (WAP push, http etc)
• Consistent implementation of standard components (e.g. Java, WAP)
• Multiple applet signature requirements
• Certificate and security management
• Support for Pay4it and regulatory requirements
• Consistent consumer advice particularly with respect to true service costs

The output from this workshop will be a statement of definition of the problems and a structure for a working group to resolve them.

If you are part of this process then you should be attending this event.

To register your interest, email events @ themda.org with the title 'Towards a single sign-off'