Reading, Berkshire-based X/Open Co Ltd is kicking around the idea of application branding as a way of encouraging cross-system application availability and easing user procurement headaches. At the moment it is establishing a working group to assess demand for such a programme, according to business development manager Paul Tanner. Testing would likely require some low hurdle conformance at the beginning. The group is cautious about pushing the idea too hard: it had its fingers burned once before over a similar idea it had back in 1988-89 following the launch of XPG3. That initiative failed, said Tanner, because the requirements were considered too loose and lacked added value to attract independent software vendors.