The bet that I offered in a previous post on this subject is still open, but I’m guessing that I won’t get the sort of odds I’d have liked now after this story in the FT
One person involved said that talks with Apple and Google had intensified in the past few days, noting a sharp change of tack from last week to more “cordial and constructive” discussions “exploring how we might change course”.
So, apart from the global nature of the Apple/Google solution, it also meant their people could build the core, be in charge of switching on and off bluetooth. Their engineers doing it, so not going to include a bug that kills the phones. Even though it’s a global pandemic, they don’t want to trash their reputations.
And the government really had no power. They couldn’t force Apple to do it. So, Apple just said no. The app they delivered sucks, and they’re now having to go back to Apple asking for their help. And Apple and Google will.
To be fair to Gould, was he really the one who made the initial decision to develop and NHSX app from the ground up, or was that the brief he was instructed to follow, surreptitiously or otherwise?