Many news reports say this is about encryption, but it's not -- it's about something entirely different: authentication (login) and the finite counter that iOS enforces. While it's obviously true that iOS provides encryption, that is not the obstacle the FBI is facing... their challenge is simply not being able to login to the device,
An iPhone is just like a computer. If the hard drive isn't encrypted, FBI can take it out, insert it into one of their own computers and read everything from the drive.
The iPhone "hard drive" is encrypted. If they can unlock the phone, they can read everything like another hard drive. If they can't unlock it, they will have to use brute force methods to break the encryption on the drive and this would cost a lot of time and effort. BTW, it will eventually break. Every encryption can be broken, I heard. Having the login just saves a lot of time and effort. It's a convenience, not a necessity, IMHO.
They (the other tech companies) have been shamed into giving tepid support. They know that if they didn't their products would be seen as inferior by the public.
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The iPhone "hard drive" is encrypted. If they can unlock the phone, they can read everything like another hard drive. If they can't unlock it, they will have to use brute force methods to break the encryption on the drive and this would cost a lot of time and effort. BTW, it will eventually break. Every encryption can be broken, I heard. Having the login just saves a lot of time and effort. It's a convenience, not a necessity, IMHO.