A method and system for identifying conflicting resource claims by applications for a system having a plurality of resources. A set of schemas are predefined for the system, wherein each schema defines a pooling of the resources of the system. Each application is then created based upon one of the schemas so as to be associated with a specified pool or subset of device resources. Applications are executed by a browser. Each application may have more than one state, and each state may have an associated schema. Requests for changes of state, such as invoking an instance of the application, are received by the browser. The browser informs a resource manager of the associated schema and the resource manager identifies the pool or subset of resources for requested state change based upon its schema and determines whether or not the resources are currently in use by another active application. Conflicts may be resolved by a conflict resolution component.