Is there a specialised protocol for all types of data stored on iOS devices? Probably not. But plenty of other models of phone, tablet, camera and other data-processing devices manage to communicate just fine with Windows (or Linux or macOS) using generic protocols as USB mass storage devices, there is little excuse for iOS devices not to. In fact, you actually can download your photos and videos from an iPhone to a Windows PC by just plugging it in and doing the same as you would with your camera, but ironically this only works if you haven't installed iTunes.
So while it is “communicating” with iPhones. What exactly is it suppose to communicate over standard protocols that would alleviate the need for an application and still perform all of the functions of iTunes?
What other devices perform all of the backup, restore, and os upgrade, functionality of iTunes.
The iPhone doesn’t use the standard “usb mass storage” protocol to allow you to download pictures. It uses the picture transfer protocol.
What other devices perform all of the backup, restore, and os upgrade, functionality of iTunes.
I've never claimed anything about any other functions of iTunes. I just said it was a problem that Apple devices make it difficult to get your data off using only local transfer.
The iPhone doesn’t use the standard “usb mass storage” protocol to allow you to download pictures. It uses the picture transfer protocol.
So it’s difficult to get data off of your device - even though you can get pictures and video off of your device like any camera and most other documents are stored in their own folders on iCloud - that you can get to either using the iCloud Drive app for Macs or Windows or by logging into iCloud.com.
Have you forgotten that the entire point of this discussion was that iCloud is not properly encrypted, which is why it is such a problem that local transfer of all data is so difficult?
So now we are going back to needing some type of app to backup and encrypt since there are no “standard protocols” that can do encrypted backups and restores.....
If everything is being transferred off your device locally, why can't you use whatever backup arrangements you normally make for your other data?
We already have a good, properly secured backup system that we use for all our workstations and servers. We just want to be able to export data from any mobile devices we use and manage that data using the same policies and tools. In most cases, that is straightforward. The one big exception is the iOS devices.
I'm not making any claim at all about "most people".
I'm saying that iCloud isn't properly encrypted, which for some people and organisations will be a problem, and that it is then a greater problem for those people and organisations that it is unusually difficult to transfer data between iOS devices and other systems through other means because of the inhibiting choices that Apple has made.
It's much like the argument that the default behaviour for consumer software should normally be to install security updates automatically, but installation of updates should still be configurable for those who do know what they're doing and need more control over their systems.
If you’re part of an organization where security is important, you would force all of your employees to register with your MDM solution and prohibit any iCloud backups, you would probably have them using Office for iOS and tell them to save their files to OneDrive for Business and enable encryption.
I doubt many businesses are using iWorks with iCloud.
