Japanese DoCoMo launched version four of RakuRaku—a device designed for the elderly demographic that sports an emergency button for broadcasting GPS location to family members. As clients get thicker and the network gets thinner, it makes sense to stuff more location smarts and application logic client-side versus server-side.

Today, 911 calls are managed, located, and serviced by server software, but with tomorrow's IMS handsets, it’s certainly conceivable to dial three 911 digits which initiates a client firmware query to device chipset resources that subsequently captures location and routes it with voice over SIP to IT PSAP response systems. Call it user-generated 911 no different from say a Java ME application today that captures a geotagged photo and publishes it to the Web with the push of a camera button.