OMA was formed in June 2002 by nearly 200 companies including the world’s leading mobile operators, device and network suppliers, information technology companies and content and service providers. The fact that the whole value chain is represented in OMA marks a change in the way specifications for mobile services are done. Rather than keeping the traditional approach of organizing activities around "technology silos", with different standards and specifications bodies representing different mobile technologies, working independently, OMA is aiming to consolidate into one organization all specification activities in the service enabler space.

OMA is the focal point for the development of mobile service enabler specifications, which support the creation of interoperable end-to-end mobile services. OMA drives service enabler architectures and open enabler interfaces that are independent of the underlying wireless networks and platforms. OMA creates interoperable mobile data service enablers that work across devices, service providers, operators, networks, and geographies. Toward that end, OMA will develop test specifications, encourage third party tool development, and conduct test activities that allow vendors to test their implementations.

A year into the formation of OMA, significant consolidation has already been achieved with the integration of the WAP Forum, Location Interoperability Forum (LIF), SyncML Initiative, MMS-IOP (Multimedia Messaging Interoperability Process), Wireless Village, Mobile Gaming Interoperability Forum (MGIF), and the Mobile Wireless Internet Forum (MWIF) into OMA. This consolidation promotes end-to-end interoperability across different devices, geographies, service providers, operators, and networks, and further supports OMA's market and user requirements focus to guide the specification work.

The Goals of the OMA:

1. Deliver high quality, open technical specifications based upon market requirements that drive modularity, extensibility, and consistency amongst enablers to reduce industry implementation efforts.
2. Ensure OMA service enabler specifications provide interoperability across different devices, geographies, service providers, operators, and networks; facilitate interoperability of the resulting product implementations.
3. Be the catalyst for the consolidation of standards activity within the mobile data service industry; working in conjunction with other existing standards organizations and industry fora to improve interoperability and decrease operational costs for all involved.
4. Provide value and benefits to members in OMA from all parts of the value chain including content and service providers, information technology providers, mobile operators and wireless vendors such that they elect to actively participate in the organization.