[Gargamel]

As it turns out, apple did offer a simple and one off solution to the problem, but the government screwed it up (by my reading).

IF the phone had been allowed to backup to the icloud, apple would have happily turned over the data from the backup. But someone in the government (I'm not sure if it was the suspects employers or someone from the Justice Department) altered the phones login properties, preventing it from backing up.

So, yes Apple did have a simple solution that would have complied with the court order, but the government screwed it up.