iPhony

Also known as a Pear-ody.

"'iPdi'. Well done. That's... exactly an iPad, but you've taken one extra chunk out of the apple. They'll never know!"

— Jim Sterling on Air Control

You know you've made it when your product keeps being parodied everywhere. That's what Apple must be thinking, anyways.

You could go with a piece of hardware that has no logo... but come on, it's easy to parody Apple. Their symbol, an apple with a small section bitten off, is really easy to draw... and even easier to spoof. Their obsession with sleek, brushed stainless steel housings with minimal buttons is easy to spoof. As is their name.

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.

A subtrope of Bland-Name Product, as it is clearly mocking the Apple logo or name. Also compare Everything Is an iPod in the Future. Of course, this is to avoid lawsuits, as are most bland name products. This trope becomes even funnier if that logo is on every type of electronic device the characters use.

Compare iProduct, where "i" is prefixed to things to make them cool and internet-y. For Real Life instances where Apple products are clearly imitated e.g. to cash in or illegally profit off their trademarks, see Shoddy Knockoff Product. If actual Apple products (especially the Mac), show up in a work more often than their real-life market share would suggest, that's Everyone Owns a Mac. The opposite, showing Apple branded products, may be Product Placement.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Death Note, L uses digital devices that look suspiciously like the iMacs of the time, but with a banana logo in place of the apple. As his gadgets are way, way more versatile than said Macs, it might just be an aesthetic thing.
• In Digimon Adventure, Izzy has a laptop that not only has a pineapple logo, but has the whole "one half white, one half a color" motif of the early iBooks.
• In Maid-Sama!, Misaki uses a laptop with a pear logo early on to do student council work.
• In March Comes in Like a Lion, the logo on Rei's phone in Chapter 102 is an apple, but without the bite.
• In No Game No Life, Sora's iPad has a cherry logo on it (may also serve as a Visual Pun, seeing that Sora is an 18-year-old virgin who really wants to get laid).
• Ouran High School Host Club has Kyouya use a laptop with a pineapple logo.

Comic Books

• In Bouncy Ball Man the titular protagonist's laptop has a very prominent banana logo.
• In DC Comics New 52, frequent mention is made of the Q-Pod, the Q-Phone, and the Q-Pad, all produced by Queen Industries.
• In the Doctor Who comic "Prisoners in Time," a robot holds a futuristic tablet with a banana design on the back.
• In Astro City, Starfighter marries an Alien Princess and retires to her planet — he's seen using the planet's equivalent of a macbook, with an alien fruit logo.

Comic Strips

• AJ & Magnus has Banana tablets and computers scattered throughout various strips.
• This trope actually predates Apple's rise in the domain of smartphones and tablets: In Bloom County during the 1980s, some characters used a Banana Jr. 9000 (or 6000), which parodied the Apple computers of the time.
• In 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 Baby kick]; it had to grow on Jason) but many Apple/Macintosh products were named normally before that. Another example comes when Jason attempts to create a Shoddy Knockoff Product of Apple, the jPod.
• Characters in Funky Winkerbean use laptops with a pineapple logo.
• Get Fuzzy 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.

Films — Animation

• In Gnomeo & Juliet, Mrs. Capulet's laptop has a banana on it.
• Wish Dragon: It especially stands out since most of the other billboards in the film are for Bland Name Products like the 'Potato oPhone'.
• In 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.
• Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf - Mission Incredible: Adventures on the Dragon's Trail shows Jonie playing with a "Pear" brand tablet.

Films — Live-Action

• In Electric Dreams, Edgar is a "Pinecone" computer that looks exactly like the original MacIntosh computer.

Literature

• In the Young Wizards books, some younger human wizards have their guide in the form of a laptop. It looks like a Mac, except the apple is whole — which fits the symbolism of the story (it's linked to the fall being caused by biting an apple, so an unbitten apple represents the world without the fall)
• In Terry Pratchett's Hogfather screenplay book, there's a concept sketch of Magitek geek Ponder Stibbons studying a sketchbook resting on his lap. The cover of the book has a pineapple on it.
• The Transformers: Shattered Glass prose stories have the characters using oPhones and oPods. Though it's somewhat justified in that the stories take place in a Mirror Universe.
• Max & Ruby at the Warthogs' Wedding by Rosemary Wells uses a Bunnyphone as a Plot Device.

Live-Action TV

• The Nick Verse series of shows by Dan Schneider started using a "Pear Company" parody in Drake & Josh and Zoey 101, but the use of the trope really exploded with follow up show iCarly and continued to be used in Victorious and Sam & Cat.
  • 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.
  • Freddie actually gets a job at a Pear Store in the imaginatively named episode "iPear Store", with a set that is a Pear knock-off of an Apple Store.
  • Recursively, Sam and Cat had a Show Within a Show where someone is using a laptop with a banana logo, which Sam explains is because they can't use Pear.
    • The title iCarly (as well as the title of each of its episodes) is taken from the whole 'i' prefix created by Apple.
• Played straight in several New Doctor Who episodes, but evaded in "Dark Water" when Danny Pink goes to the apparent afterlife. When it's noted that the Administrator is using an iPad, he proudly boasts that they have Steve Jobs as well.
• The Disney Channel variant is the "zPhone" and "zPod", as depicted in episodes of Hannah Montana,Shake it Up, A.N.T. Farm and Liv and Maddie.
• Played with in Odd Squad. There's no Apple-inspired logo present on any of the technology seen in the show (some computers with the logo have it replaced with the Investigation department symbol instead), but it's made pretty clear that a majority of it runs on Apple's operating system, Mac OS — the computers that Investigation agents use have a desktop screen clearly inspired by those of Macs and Macbooks, and the smartwatches of those in the Mobile Unit particularly have a spinning rainbow wheel that pops up to indicate when there's an error, like what Apple computers have.

Puppet Shows

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

Video Games

• A Hat in Time: In Nyakuza metro, one message board advertises the "MeowBook Pro", all with a fantasy equivalent to the Apple symbol on the back.
• The Grand Theft Auto series has Fruit Computers. Their logo is a rather phallic-looking fruit bowl, and their products, much like those of Apple, are portrayed as status symbols with an Ascetic Aesthetic. An advertisement◊ for the Cocoon computer and the first-generation iFruit phone in GTA IV describes the former as "simple, minimalistic, and overpriced" and the latter as "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 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.
• The update for Team Fortress 2 that introduced a Macintosh version, included an accompanying comic where the Blue team visits an Apple Store ("It looks like some kinda hospital for fruit!") The comic carefully avoids fully showing the logo or explicitly naming one of their products. They're quite impressed with the chaingun that sets up a blog for you and the iBlewUpTheMoon, though.
• Death end re;Quest features a massive tech company named Aggle who, among other things, have their smartphones in the hands of millions. They turn out to be a front for an ancient cult.
• In Tokyo Xanadu, all characters 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 Farnham Fables, a "Pear Ic" computer can be found in the nurse's office. Interestingly enough, this is an In-Universe Shoddy Knockoff Product rather than a Bland-Name Product, 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.
• Animal Crossing 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.
• Progress Bar 95 has Pyrus, the makers of BarOS, a parody of macOS. Their name is based on "pirus", the Latin word for pear. Their company website claims that the fact that "Pirus" comes before "Progress" (as in Progressbar, the Microsoft parody) in the phone book is proof they're better and proudly states that they were founded by "super talented snobs and visioners" (yes, they really spell it that way).

Visual Novels

• In Steins;Gate 0, 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 Steins;Gate.

Web Animation

• Homestar Runner:
  • In the Strong Bad Email "looking old", Bubs thinks that 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 The '90s.
  • The Tandy 400, Strong Bad's computer at the start of the Strong Bad Emails series, is a mishmash of several ancient computers, but its logo (a rainbow-colored star with a bite taken from it) is a definite nod to Apple.
  • The Cheat uses computers that are obvious shout-outs to actual Apple iMacs, complete with the same logo as Strong Bad's Tandy 400. Tangerine Dreams is an iMac G3, and Monosodium Dreams is a G5.
• In one Red vs. Blue 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:
  Grif: We got something called iPuds. [Beat.] Don't Ask.
• Inanimate Insanity has the Meeple family of products (run by Steve Cobs), two of them (the MePad and the MePhone4) being hosts of the show itself. MePhone4S (who is apparently an expy of Arnold Schwarzenegger) attempted to take over the show in episode 8 due to claiming to be an updated model.
  • Surprisingly, the Meeple logo still looks like the Apple logo.
• James Lee: In "Elden Ring: Unironically Terrible", James does product placement for a fictional device called The Kube. It's a palm-sized cube with touch-screens on all six of its sides.
  James Lee: Now available in Midnight Black, Charcoal Black, Bloodshit Brown and Black. The Kube. Be Yourself.
• Mystery Skulls Animated: Arthur's laptop has a glowing star with a bite out of it where a macbook would have the apple.

Web Comics

• The laptop used by Catherine in Nellie Kitchen's Furry Experience has the Thunder Cats sigil from the 1985 cartoon.
• Kevin Dewclaw's laptop from Bill Holbrook's Kevin & Kell bears a carrot sigil (because he's a rabbit). There's a storyline where he gets a contract with Carrot Computers and we meet their lapine founder, Steve Lop.
• Paranatural lampshades this in the alt-text:
  I am proud to be breaking into the "Just Like My Cat" and "Putting Different Fruit on the Back of Apple Product" genres of humor.
• In this strip from VG Cats, Doctor Shrunk is seen using a laptop with the Animal Crossing leaf logo on it, slightly altered so the bite on the leaf is placed like the bite on the Apple logo.
• Arthur, King of Time and Space has a sword in an anvil, Excalicorp being so ubiquitous that everything has that logo.

Web Original

• Alice and Bob has the iBone.

Web Videos

• In the Epic Rap Battles of History episode for Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates, the logo used is a strawberry.
• Although the company's actual products are more direct parallels to those of Microsoft and Twitter, the Maize Machines technology conglomerate from THE MONUMENT MYTHOS is as clear of an Apple parody as you can get. Beyond just the name and their logo (a corn cob silhouette with the pattern of a homophonous maze etched into it), the names of their founders are Rob Careers and Rob Watroba, and they even have similar advertising techniques and business ethics. The only difference is their fairly unsettling use of electricity from an eldritch beast in their products.
• Sam & Mickey riff on Apple with Pineapple brand electronics.

Western Animation

• Aqua Teen Hunger Force: In one episode, Shake is given an "IAmAPod" that comes with an pineapple logo and seeds that creates a creature that wants to absorb Shake and replicate him and visit a ChickenFoot concert.
• A banana decorates most pieces of hardware in Ben's City.
• In Danny Phantom, some computers have a pear on them. The pear seems to be a running joke among Nick's shows, being also present in iCarly and some others.
• Futurama: In "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 iconic line: "Shut up and take my money!"
• In Milo Murphy's Law, Victor Verliezer's vTech Corp Inc. manufactures the vPhone and the vTablet in "A Clockwork Origin".^note They didn't really dodge a bullet here though- there is a company called vTech in real life, that hilariously does make functioning phones and tablets, except for kids
• In The Simpsons, a logo that often pops up on hardware is an apple bitten on both sides. That line of products is called Mapple and was created by Steve Mobs. Its product line includes the MyPhone, the MyPod, and MyPhonies, headphones that only serve to give the impression someone owns a Mapple product.
• In the universe of The Venture Bros., characters are seen using J-Phones and J-Pads, which are ostensibly similar to the Apple-made products, only that they are produced and manufactured by Dr. Venture's brother, Jonas Venture Jr. Interestingly, in one episode, a bit character mistakes a J-Pad for an iPad.
• "There's a Pony For That" promo for My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic features a Most-Definitely-Not-An-iPhone with the Hub logo for the home button and "Pony-fide" versions of popular apps (including Equestria Daily for some reason, which also looks different that the official EqD mobile app).
• The logo on Rick's portable computer in the Rick and Morty episode "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez" is an electric plug.
• The Mixels episode "Nixel, Nixel, Go Away" uses an "I-Cubit" as a major plot point. It's a Nixel-controlled Cubit that is exchanged for real ones, sapping the creativity of Mixels to slowly turn them into Nixel zombies. The only reason the Mixels start to want it is because it's "new". Booger avoiding trading his Cubit in for one is what saves the day.
• The Crumpets: Granny's laptop is adorned with a letter C with a white circle inside and a stem on top.
• My Life as a Teenage Robot: In the episode "Girl of Steal," a new mp3 player named Musique is a new thing everyone is desperate for. It looks like a white music note and is stuck directly into the wearer's ear. In one part of the episode, people dance in silhouette with the Musiques in their ears just like in the iconic Apple commercials.
• VeggieTales: In "Larry-Boy! And The Fib From Outer Space", Alfred's computer shows a yellow box-shaped smiley face when turning on, a parody of the Macintosh bootup screen from that time period.

Real Life

• In 1999 US computer maker eMachines released a clone of the Apple iMac called the eOne which included a translucent light blue case and a 3.5-inch floppy drive, a famous omission by the original iMac. Apple would sue eMachines for copying the design of the iMac and it resulted in the eOne being discontinued one year later.
• A Chinese manufacturer going by the name Goophone gained notoriety for producing counterfeit clones of popular high-end Apple smartphones, occasionally using a stylised bee logo in place of Apple's. They even went so far as to file a patent and sue Apple on the grounds that they released their version of the iPhone 5 first.

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