Patent ID: 7539723

Claim:
A system for configuring a cellular telephone to operate according to policy guidelines for a group of users, comprising: a target device in the form of a cellular telephone and said cellular telephone having configuration settings; a plurality of cellular telephones each of which employs one or more configuration settings; a computer; and a network connecting said target device, said plurality of cellular telephones, and said computer, wherein said computer is arranged to group said cellular telephones into affinity groups according to a grouping based on the member cellular telephones' respective configuration settings, wherein said computer is arranged to identify a plurality of default parameters for each of said affinity groups, said identifying including the computer determining configuration settings commonly associated with the members of the affinity group and identifying the default parameters based on said determining, wherein said default parameters represent an hierarchical priority of operation for the members of the affinity group, wherein the computer is arranged to determine whether the target device may be added as a member to one or more of the affinity groups, wherein the determining includes: the computer querying, through the network, the configuration setting of the target device, the computer identifying, based on a comparison of the queried configuration setting of the target device and the default parameters of the affinity groups, affinity groups similar to the target device and, if at least one affinity groups is identified as similar, then said computer presenting to said target device the default parameters of the affinity group the computer identifies as similar to the target device, said computer receiving, using said network, input from said target device as to whether a default parameter of said default parameters of the affinity group the computer identifies as similar to the target device is to be implemented on said target device, said computer adding the target device to the affinity group the computer identifies as similar to the target device, and said computer adjusting the default parameters of the affinity group having the target device, based on said input from said target device and based on said configuration settings of said target device together with said configuration settings of said cellular telephones of said affinity group when said target device is added to said group.