>Then the public outcry would finally be enough to cause a repeal of the law.

If Apple pulls out, then maybe. If Samsung pulled all it's Android phones, some other company would just swoop in and replace them. You would end up with a marked filled with companies with no morals, who just do what ever the government asks, no questions asked.

You run the risk of companies that are actually trying to do the right thing going out of business, and you left with the ones with no morals. Apple might be a bit different, customers would complain bitterly if iPhones where no longer available in the UK.

Being as Google have come out supporting Apple could they not just stop licensing Android/Google Play for sale in the UK? In fact Google actually have precedent for this when they stopped providing search in China.

Google never stopped providing search in China. The Chinese government blocked them. Google pulled development from China because of all pervasive spying.

You are talking Snowden-level sized stones.

Nobody else has proven to be at his level, as far as I can remember. Not during my lifetime anyways.

I feel like that would be a financially detrimental move in the case of the US.

It would be financially detrimental for any country. Technology is going to play a bigger and bigger role in the future of all businesses, and stifling it now will hurt its growth in whatever countries try to limit it in this way. I say try because encryption and mathematics are not governed by human laws.

Plus, the government relies on encryption for communication too. Are they going to say that only certain government officials should be allowed to use secure devices? What happens when someone in government wants to have a private conversation with someone in the private sector? The private sector person will need a secure device too, and we're back where we started.

The fact is our government needs to figure out how to keep us safe without relying on backdoors.