>> Mr Gates said the case was similar to the requests regularly made to phone companies and banks for information.

No. This is a request to create something to gain access. If it were simply an information request I doubt Apple would complain much. AFAICT Apple got tired of secret requests to provide access to user information, so made things so they can not comply. To be clear, the authorities can still get a court order to gain access to your phone. They just need to compel the user to provide the access. That's hard in this case because the user is dead, but none of that is really whats at play here and I think Bill G should know better.