> Or they just want criminals to think that all they have to do is buy an Apple or Google phone, and they can't be caught.

There is a greater incentive to let Apple or Google do that kind of marketing and quietly exploit the vulnerabilities (ie, what's been happening with the NSA for some time now). If it had the appearance of working but actually didn't you wouldn't hear a peep from any government.

Unless they need to rebuild the reputations of companies that got hurt by the disclosure of their prior partnerships (ahem, which notably included Apple and Google).

After considering this and other comments saying the same I would tend to agree. There could certainly be a PR angle to the whole thing.

The smartest thing for the govt is to complain but do nothing.

That might make sense if you believe their primary motive is to catch criminals.

Bingo! This is a stunt to make people who do bad think they're going to be safe. It is all just a clever act. For those who believe this and do bad and get caught, ha!

Exactly. There's no real reason to believe they aren't forcing apple/google to say this while also forcing them to use a flawed encryption algorithm like the eliptic key method with a skeleton key vulnerability.