History Main / IPhony

Compare IProduct, where "i" is prefixed to things to make them cool and internet-y. For RealLife instances where Apple products are clearly imitated e.g. to cash in or illegally profit off their trademarks, see ShoddyKnockoffProduct. If actual Apple products (especially the Mac), show up in a work more often than their real-life market share would suggest, that's EveryoneOwnsAMac.

* The fourth ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'' film shows Jonie playing with a "Pear" brand tablet.

* ''VideoGame/AHatInTime'': In Nyakuza metro, one message board advertises the "MeowBook Pro", all with a fantasy equivalent to the Apple symbol on the back.

** In the WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail "looking old", Bubs thinks that [[WereStillRelevantDammit the best way to "modernize" Strong Bad's image]] is to put a lowercase "i" in front of it, like iStrong or iBad. This is demonstrated with a scene of Homestar and Homsar waiting in line at Bubs' Concession Stand for "iTems". Strong Bad declines, saying they fell into the same trap with lowercase "e"s in TheNineties.

* In one ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' PSA, the Blood Gulch crew attempts to impress people at the 2005 Sundance film festival with gift baskets for their panels. They couldn't get the sponsors they wanted and had to settle for substantially less impressive products -- Sarge wanted iPods, and instead:

* In ComicBook/BouncyBall the titular protagonist's laptop has a very prominent banana logo.

* The Creator/DisneyChannel variant is the "zPhone" and "zPod", as depicted in episodes of ''Series/HannahMontana'' ,''Series/ShakeItUp'', ''Series/ANTFarm'' and ''Series/LivAndMaddie''.

* The Creator/DisneyChannel variant is the "zPhone" and "zPod", as depicted in episodes of ''Series/HannahMontana'' and ''Series/ShakeItUp''.

* ''Literature/TheLastDragonslayer: Song of the Quarkbeast'': Discussed and {{Lampshaded}}. Industrial Magic, Kazam's competing agency mentioned in the last book, has undergone a makeover and dubbed itself "iMagic".

* In ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw'', Victor Verliezer's vTech Corp Inc. manufactures the vPhone and the vTablet in "A Clockwork Origin".

*** The title ''iCarly'' (as well as [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming the title of each of its episodes]]) is taken from the whole 'i' prefix fad created by Apple.

* In ''ComicBook/AstroCity'', Starfighter marries an [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Alien Princess]] and retires to her planet - he's seen using the planet's equivalent of a macbook, with an alien fruit logo.

* This trope actually predates Apple's rise in the domain of smartphones and tablets: in ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'', some characters use a Banana Jr. 9000 (or 6000), which parodied the Apple computers.

* ''Series/SesameStreet'' usually goes for the banana, but a couple of characters have custom logos: Cookie Monster's "Me-Phone" in the unbroadcast ''Series/MissionImpossible'' parody "Munchin: Impossible" has - of course - a cookie with a bite taken out of it, and Oscar has a laptop with an onion logo.

* In one ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' PSA, the Blood Gulch crew attempts to impress people at the 2005 Sundance film festival with gift baskets for their panels. They couldn't get the sponsors they wanted and had to settle for substantially less impressive products--Sarge wanted iPods, and instead:

-->-- '''[[WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}} Jim Sterling]]''' on ''Air Control''

* In ''VisualNovel/SteinsGateZero'', Maho has a sleek white laptop with banana icon on it. Bananas previously held importance in the series as one of the first test subjects done in the Phone Microwave in the original ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate''.

* The Series/NickVerse series of shows by Creator/DanSchneider started using a "Pear Company" parody in ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'' and ''Series/{{Zoey 101}}'', but the use of the trope really exploded with follow up show ''Series/ICarly'' and continued to be used in ''Series/{{Victorious}}'' and ''Series/SamAndCat''.

* ''Series/SesameStreet'' usually goes for the banana, but a couple of characters have custom logos: Cookie Monster's "Me-Phone" in the unbroadcast ''Series/MissionImpossible'' parody ''Munchin: Impossible'' has - of course - a cookie with a bite taken out of it, and Oscar has a laptop with an onion logo.

* In ''Videogame/TokyoXanadu'' all characters, including yours, have a Xiphone. They sorta look like an iphone 6 grey with an ipod wheel on them and is obviously short for Xanadu iPhone.

* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' kind of lucked into this trope thanks to its long-running (since 2001) use of a symbol of a leaf with what appears to be a bite mark in it. This has functioned mostly as a stand-in icon for furniture items in the inventory menu and when transferring items between characters, though it also appeared in the logo of ''New Leaf'' in the North American version. As of ''New Horizons'', Tom Nook is running his own company and using the leaf as its logo, which means it appears on the back of his Nook-branded smartphones. There's even a joke about making it easier to use by taking out most of the features.

Which is probably why nowadays, many fictional computers, tablets, smartphones and other pieces of advanced technology bear a logo shaped like a fruit or another type of food. If it's not a fruit or a food of some kind, it'll still be a monochrome symbol of something recognizable or corresponding to the work's context. And the name could be [whatever letter]Phone. To make the reference even more obvious, the logo also has a small section bitten off.

* In Creator/DCComics ''ComicBook/{{New 52}}'', frequent mention is made of the Q-Pod, the Q-Phone and the Q-Pad, all produced by [[ComicBook/GreenArrow Queen Industries]].

* ''ComicStrip/GetFuzzy'' plays this straight; with one rare occasion of possible unintentional product-placement for Apple, most in-universe computers have a logo design that features a pear with a bite in it.

* In ''Film/ElectricDreams'', Edgar is a "Pinecone" computer which is looks exactly like the original [=MacIntosh=] computer.

** In ''iCarly'', the stable of products and parodies grew to include the Pear Operating System, Pear Pod music players, Pear Phones, Pear Pad tablets (which are actually shaped like pears), Pear TV, Pear Tunes music downloads and Pear Chat messaging service.

* The ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' series has [[https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Fruit_Computers_(HD_Universe) Fruit Computers.]] Their logo is a [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything rather phallic-looking]] fruitbowl, and their products, much like those of Apple, are portrayed as status symbols with an AsceticAesthetic. An [[https://gtwfilesie.grandtheftwiki.com/Fruitcomputers.jpg advertisement]] for the Cocoon computer and the first-generation iFruit phone in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV GTA IV]]'' describes the former as "simple, minimalistic, and overpriced" and the latter as [[AwesomeButImpractical "no buttons, no reception, no storage capacity, all ego"]], and portrays owning one as a sign that one is smarter than the "To$$ers" who use the Facade [=ToSS=] operating system. In ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV GTA V]]'', meanwhile, the fact that Michael uses an iFruit reflects his upper-class lifestyle as compared to Franklin and Trevor with their more downmarket cellphones.

* In ''Videogame/TokyoXanadu'' all characters, including yours, have a Xiphone. They sorta look like an iphone 6 grey with an ipod wheel on them, and is obviously short for Xanadu iPhone.
* In Episode 3 of ''VideoGame/FarnhamFables'', a "Pear Ic" computer can be found in the nurse's office. Interestingly enough, this is an InUniverse ShoddyKnockoffProduct rather than a BlandNameProduct, as examining it will tell you that it's made using Apple [=IIc=] hardware, and that its makers are in legal trouble with Apple because of this. Actual Apple [=IIe=] computers can be found in the school's computer lab.

** The Cheat uses computers which are obvious shout outs to actual Apple iMacs, complete with the same logo as Strong Bad's Tandy 400. [[http://www.hrwiki.org/wiki/Tangerine_Dreams Tangerine Dreams]] is an iMac G3, and [[http://www.hrwiki.org/wiki/Monosodium_Dreams Monosodium Dreams]] is a G5.
* In one ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' PSA, the Blood Gulch crew attempts to impress people at the 2005 Sundance film festival with gift baskets for their panels. They couldn't get the sponsors they wanted and have to settle for substantially less impressive products--Sarge wanted iPods, and instead:

* The logo on Rick's portable copmputer in the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez" [[https://imgur.com/N7suuzc is an electric plug]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': In [[Recap/FuturamaS6E3AttackOfTheKillerApp Attack Of The Killer App]], the team buys eyePhones from [=MomCorp=]; those have Mom's head as logo. This being the future, an eyePhone is literally a device that is implanted into the eye which serves all the standard smartphone functions. The scenes introducing the eyePhone serve to poke fun at the hype over so many new Apple products, highlighted with Fry's [[MemeticMutation iconic line]]: "Shut up and take my money!"

[[folder:Films]]
* In ''Film/ElectricDreams'', Edgar is a "Pinecone" computer which is looks exactly like the original [=MacIntosh=] computer.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* In the ''WebVideo/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory'' episode for Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates, the logo used is a strawberry.
* Creator/SamAndMickey riff on Apple with Pineapple brand electronics.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'', some computers have a pear on them. The pear seems to be a running joke among Nick's shows, being also present in ''{{Series/iCarly}}'' and some others.

* In ''ComicStrip/{{FoxTrot}}'', an iFruit was introduced as the {{Expy}} for the iMac (Andy chose it because it was cute/the color was about to be discontinued [coming off a Beanie Baby er, Bitty Muffin kick]; it had to grow on Jason) but many Apple/Macintosh products were named normally before that. Another example comes when Jason constantly attempts at creating a ShoddyKnockoffProduct of Apple, the [=JPad=].
* ''ComicStrip/GetFuzzy'' plays this straight; with one rare occasion of possible unintentional product-placement for Apple, most in-universe computers have a logo design that features a pear with a bite in it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', the team buys eyePhones from [=MomCorp=]; those have Mom's head as logo. This being the future, an eyePhone is literally a device that is implanted into the eye which serves all the standard smartphone functions.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}''}, the logo for Judy's [=iPhone=]-workalike is a silhouette of a carrot with a bite taken out of it. It also appears on the film's poster, on mobile devices used by Clawhauser and (again) Judy.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder:Film]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}},'' the logo for Judy's [=iPhone=]-workalike is a silhouette of a carrot with a bite taken out of it. It also appears on the film's poster, on mobile devices used by Clawhauser and (again) Judy.