The only reason it is easier for the authorities to break the encryption on an Android device is because they can image the encrypted volume to a PC and then perform a brute force attack on the encrypted volume. Try an unlimited amount of pass code combinations until they get one which can be derived into the key needed to decrypt the volume.
With the iPhone they cannot do this because the phone doesn't allow you to make a copy of the encrypted user volume. Apple has not included any method to perform it. So the FBI has two options.
1. Attempt to brute force the lock code on the device itself which risks the contents being erased.
2. Take the NAND flash off the logic board in the phone, put it into a reader and then extract all the bits from the NAND to do a brute force attack.
If they do the second one, there is a risk the NAND could be damaged. There is also a risk that they don't have the technical expertise required to perform the code side where they need to work out what encryption is being used, how it is implemented, how long the key is, what the salt is that Apple employed (as the passcode is only part of the key). This is all very complicated stuff and why risk it when they can get a court order?
Now the reason I brought up the Android thing is because at the moment the Google supplied encryption system has issues. One it's easy to extract the encrypted volume from the phones. And two many Android devices do not have the capability to encrypt using hardware, they have to use a software based encrypter and decrypter. This is slow and so many OEM's have the encryption system turned off by default. This mostly affects older devices but some new ones as-well, especially budget handsets.
We have a situation where 100% of iOS 8 and iOS 9 devices. That's all iPhones and iPads sold in the past 4-5 years have by default encrypted archives. And then you have Android with at most 50% of flagships and 1% of 3 year old devices being encrypted. That's the difference we're talking about here.
But that wont stop consumers in the future from using apps and custom firmware on their Android devices that offer better encryption. Just as we have seen on Windows, OS X and Desktop Linux with third party Apps like TrueCrypt being the go to volume and file encrypter. Windows and OS X both ship with built in volume encrypters but people still recommend TrueCrypt because it has been shown both of those are not secure enough, law enforcement can break them.
People who care about their security will always go where that security is available. Right now that is not on Android. But it is the only platform out of the two (iOS being the other) that allows deep system integrated applications that could enable 3rd party encryption. iOS is controlled entirely by Apple and so if they lose this case and have to weaken their encryption it will be a dead end for the privacy concious and it will be yet another feature only Android phones can offer.
I hope you understand where I'm coming from here.
