My first drawing after 2 years.
This is a parody of Apple's slogan. After seeing that almost every American I know chose an iPod or iPhone in favour of other mp3 players and smart phones, I often wondered, do they really have no choice?
Please note that this is not directed at Apple or their customers, but the phenomenon itself. So, please don't post comments saying that I hate Apple etc.

Nice work. I can appreciate the sentiment behind it as well - I find the whole idea of millions of iPhone users being told that they "Think Different" to be similar to Brian telling his followers that "you are all individuals".

My take on Apple's slogan has been posted here before in "The Greys" thread, so I won't repost the image here, but if you missed it before you can follow this link.

When Apple surveys a new market, what do they find? With MP3 players they saw computers that play a MP3 data file.

Apple decided to help humans manage their music. Not play data files.

Other manufacturers focus on early (computer geek) adopters. For these people, complicated technology is like a game or a challenge. So when these manufacturers get ready to ship, they call in a designer a month before and slap on a "skin" which is pretty but pointless.

Apple focuses on the early majority, the other side of "the chasm." And that is why every Apple product -- from the iPod to iPhone -- are pronounced dead on arrival from day one. Those early adopters hating the iPod or certain lacking features on the iPhone don't see cutting edge features -- but they aren't the target customer.

Apple doesn't invent or introduce new features. Apple didn't invent the scroll wheel or touch screen. They simply gave a reason for them to exist in products. Other manufacturers see product cases as a "Feature Bucket," they simply cram as many features into the case as possible. Whether any user can operate the thing is almost irrelevant.

When the iPhone was introduced, Google had minimal traffic from "mobile search." All of a sudden iPhone search traffic surprised Google engineers. The difference? Search humans can use versus search tacked on as a feature.

So Apple sells truckloads of product at premium pricing. And technologists grind their teeth and call Apple customers mindless dunces and worse, all while they continue to focus on technology rather than interaction design and human factors.

Everywhere designers are kept on a short leash and are fed table scraps. Manufacturing tells designers what they can't do.

In other manufacturing, innovative concept designs are seen at trade shows -- not available for purchase. Apple takes the concepts out of the design dungeon and puts them out to sell. And then they eat everyone's lunch.

@Xav: Thanks. I've been a fan of your comics.

@DC1: As I said, this is not against Apple. In my hometown, if you asked people to show their phones or music players and put them all together, you would be dazzled by a colourful display of gadgets of all shapes and sizes. But if you did the same thing in the US, they would have trouble not taking someone else's phone afterwards.