Apple has ALREADY taken that next step
There's no bypass as of iOS 8 in Sept. 2014 - that's what has some in the government so whiny about Apple and encryption. They changed it so they don't hold the encryption key for a user's device, the only place it is stored is in the secure enclave in the phone. The only way that key can be accessed is via fingerprint (if you have that enabled) or via the password/passcode (depending on whether you use 4/6 digits or the full keyboard for an unlimited length password) Thus it is impossible for Apple to unlock, even with a special version of firmware installed on the phone.
However, since OS updates control how many attempts you get to unlock it, they've found a loophole - compel Apple to provide them a one-off OS update that allows unlimited attempts - and I assume no delay between attempts, so they can make some poor first year agent get carpal tunnel trying 1,010,000 possible passcodes. They're lucky a password wasn't used instead, there's no brute forcing that.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
