Apple and Google's health code exposes the "digital divide": 2 billion old phones cannot be used

Beijing time, April 20, market research firm Counterpoint Research estimates that up to 2 billion mobile phone users around the world are unable to use the US version of the "Health Code" jointly developed by Apple and Google. The "Health Code" will be able to track whether users have come into contact with people infected with the new coronavirus.

Currently, the number of active smartphones in the world is estimated to be 3.5 billion. Among these 2 billion mobile phone users, many are poorer and older people, who are also the most vulnerable to COVID-19, exposing the "digital divide" (referring to the gap in information technology owned by different groups of people) in the US health code system.

Apple and Google had hoped to make the system available to as many people as possible while protecting personal privacy. Surveys show that most Britons support the government's use of mobile phones to track close contacts of COVID-19 patients.

Hardware and system requirements

Apple and Google are working together to develop the contact tracing system, which could be released as soon as next month. However, the system requires specific wireless chips and systems that are missing from hundreds of millions of active smartphones, especially those released more than five years ago.

Public health agencies have been asked to integrate technology from Silicon Valley companies into their apps that will notify people if they have come into contact with someone with Covid-19 and urge them to self-isolate.

Counterpoint analysts said that the US version of the "health code" uses a special type of Bluetooth "low-power" chip to measure the distance between two mobile phones, which will not consume too much power of the mobile phone, but currently a quarter of the world's active smartphones lack this chip. Another 1.5 billion people still use feature phones that do not run iOS or Android.

"If you are a vulnerable person and only have an older phone or a feature phone, you will miss out on the potential benefits that this app (health code) could provide," said Ben Wood, an analyst at market research firm CCS Insight.

“Overall, nearly 2 billion mobile phone users worldwide will not be able to benefit from this system,” said Neil Shah, an analyst at Counterpoint. “Most of the users of these incompatible devices are from the lower-income class or the elderly who are more vulnerable to COVID-19.”

Smartphone penetration and adoption of specific devices vary around the world. In the UK, for example, Ofcom said last year that about 80% of adults own a smartphone. However, CCS Insight analyst Wood estimates that only about two-thirds of adults own a phone that is compatible with the US version of the "health code."

“This is in the UK, a very developed smartphone market,” he said. “If this were in India, 60 to 70 percent of the population would be excluded immediately.”

Counterpoint is more optimistic. They expect that in developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, 88% of smartphones will be compatible with the US version of the "health code", and half of the people in India will own the necessary mobile phones.