After almost a year of silence, the government tried once again to revive Clipper. This time, however, they claimed they were going to pay more attention to industry requirements, and were interested in compromise. They convened meetings with representatives of concerned groups, and tried to come up with a palatable solution. On the other, the government wanted to maintain their ability to observe communications in the hope of preventing crime. Most software manufacturers would like to enable encryption in their software, but requiring customers to purchase hardware devices in order to save their files in an encrypted format is extreme.
Software companies have to compete with other manufacturers.
Nations such as Switzerland have no export restrictions, and so far have not clamped down on strong crypto. People interested in buying security software are more likely to purchase software that uses known algorithms and keys that aren't known by the U.S. government. Many people, especially those in the cryptographic community, do not accept the arguments for escrow agents as necessary. Even if people were willing to accept the need for escrow agents, there is a general distrust in the government. Some people would prefer several third-party members be the agents.