A method of application control for use on an electronic device, wherein the method comprises loading onto the device information regarding a device owner as owner information, wherein the information comprises a digital signature public key of the device owner; wherein changes to existing owner information are subject to verification of a digital signature of the device owner using the digital signature public key of the device owner included in the existing owner information; storing on the device owner control information in an authorization record; wherein the owner control information comprises one or more lists of required, allowable or excluded applications and, for each individual allowable and/or required application, an indication of allowable operations for the respective application; wherein the owner control information further comprises a version number; wherein the storing of the owner control information on the device is subject to verification of the digital signature of the device owner; wherein the storing of the owner control information on the device is further subject to the version number of the owner control information being higher than a version number of existing owner control information; and wherein alteration and deletion of the owner control information on the device are restricted to the device owner using the digital signature of the device owner; disabling the device if owner control information has not yet been stored on the device, if an application that is on the list of required applications is not present on the device, or if an application that is on the list of excluded applications is present on the device; controlling operation of the device using the authorization record; receiving an operation request from an application; determining whether the requested operation is allowed to be performed by the application based upon the stored authorization record and an application identifier associated with the application; and allowing the application to perform the requested operation based upon whether the requested operation is determined to be allowed to be performed by the application, wherein the requested operation is selected from the group consisting of: opening a connection; accessing a telephone API; accessing local memory; and communicating with another application. loading onto the device information regarding a device owner as owner information, wherein the information comprises a digital signature public key of the device owner; wherein changes to existing owner information are subject to verification of a digital signature of the device owner using the digital signature public key of the device owner included in the existing owner information; storing on the device owner control information in an authorization record; wherein the owner control information comprises one or more lists of required, allowable or excluded applications and, for each individual allowable and/or required application, an indication of allowable operations for the respective application; wherein the owner control information further comprises a version number; wherein the storing of the owner control information on the device is subject to verification of the digital signature of the device owner; wherein the storing of the owner control information on the device is further subject to the version number of the owner control information being higher than a version number of existing owner control information; and wherein alteration and deletion of the owner control information on the device are restricted to the device owner using the digital signature of the device owner; disabling the device if owner control information has not yet been stored on the device, if an application that is on the list of required applications is not present on the device, or if an application that is on the list of excluded applications is present on the device; controlling operation of the device using the authorization record; receiving an operation request from an application; determining whether the requested operation is allowed to be performed by the application based upon the stored authorization record and an application identifier associated with the application; and allowing the application to perform the requested operation based upon whether the requested operation is determined to be allowed to be performed by the application,