innocent bystander :
they just aren't a big enough market to influence global product development at the likes of Apple and Google.
Except they aren't just talking about Google and Apple here. In fact they are probably irrelevant. But imagine if every piece of telecom equipment your message (voice, sms, data, etc) went through could be tapped and decrypted! They are targeting companies like Cisco that are building the backbone.
Sure, Google and Apple might not care about France and just tell people to go to Denmark to buy their Nexus or iPhone. But Cisco et al. aren't going to pull out of the market, because someone else will step in and sell French telecoms the equipment they want to build their network. Companies, especially the national telecom provider, can't and won't circumvent this law.
In fact, some enterprising handset manufacturers will step-in too, with modified version of Android that meet the French requirements just to capture the segment of the market that doesn't know and/or doesn't care but just wants a phone right now.
But honestly, any one who seriously wants to protect their communications isn't going to rely on some one else's encryption. They are going to use their own - either apps on the phone that encrypt messages which you can copy & paste or good 'ol codes and ciphers like the old days, simply transmitted via mobile phone.