'Father of the iPod' Tony Fadell revealed as buyer of Product (RED) Mac Pro, gold EarPods

Posted:
in General Discussion edited May 2014
A series of tweets from noted photographer Kevin Abosch seems to have outed iPod inventor and former Apple executive Tony Fadell as the buyer of a one-of-a-kind Mac Pro and a set of solid gold Apple EarPods at last month's Product (RED) charity auction.

Tony Fadell with Product RED Mac Pro
Tony Fadell with the Product (RED) Mac Pro Credit: @kevinabosch


The metallic red Mac Pro, which was estimated to bring in between $40,000 and $60,000, sold for an astounding $977,000, while the EarPods fetched $461,000 at the auction to benefit The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. If Fadell is the buyer, that would bring his outlay at the charity event to nearly $1.5 million.

Of the Mac Pro, Abosch says Fadell is "already trying to hack it." Fadell oversaw Apple's iPod division until 2008, and eventually went on to found connected device company Nest Labs, makers of the Nest Learning Thermostat and Nest Protect intelligent smoke detector.

Tony Fadell with Product RED EarPods
Tony Fadell with the solid gold Product (RED) EarPods Credit: @kevinabosch


The bespoke Mac Pro --?the most expensive desktop PC ever sold --?and EarPods were among more than 40 lots created exclusively for the auction by Apple Senior Vice President of Design Jony Ive and fellow industrial design legend Marc Newson.

Other notable sales at the auction included a 1966 bottle of Dom P?rignon housed in a custom red cooler designed by Ive and Newson that went for $93,750; a one-of-a-kind Leica Digital Rangefinder Camera that brought $1,805,000, and "The (RED) Desk," a desk designed to look as though it were machined from a solid block of aluminum, which took $1,685,000 at the hammer.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 33

    Couldn’t he have just… you know, asked for one?

  • Reply 2 of 33
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    'Outed' ?

    Anyone who stands in front of said product with a camera present wants to be 'outed'. It's for a good cause, but it also puts his name on the map.
  • Reply 3 of 33
    Probably Apple reimbursed him with stock so they can pretend someone actually spends that much money for their products.
  • Reply 4 of 33
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    gimarbazat wrote: »
    Probably Apple reimbursed him with stock so they can pretend someone actually spends that much money for their products.

    Apple has nothing got to do with the auction or Fadell, really.
  • Reply 5 of 33
    chiachia Posts: 713member

    He's also notably the first person in public to have received the new Mac Pro.

     

    When will the ordinary ones follow for the other buyers?

  • Reply 6 of 33
    danoxdanox Posts: 2,804member
    I hate him Damn!
  • Reply 7 of 33

    Tony is a great guy, Apple is lucky to have him.

  • Reply 8 of 33
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by bloggerblog View Post

     

    Tony is a great guy, Apple is lucky to have him.


    Isn't he ex-Apple?

     

    In that case, Apple doesn't have him.

  • Reply 9 of 33
    Really, so these products are not Apple products design by Apple employees? Ok than you are right, Apple doesn't have anything to do with this. :)
  • Reply 10 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post





    Apple has nothing got to do with the auction or Fadell, really.

    Really, so these products are not Apple products designed by Apple employees and bought by former Apple employe? Ok than you are right, Apple doesn't have anything to do with this. 1smile.gif 

  • Reply 11 of 33

    Tony is a great guy and didn't deserve to get booted from Apple the way he did.

    Although history is clearly on Scott Forestall's side as far as the decision of what OS to use for the iPhone.

    Tony wanted the iPod OS and Scott wanted a slimmed down Mac OS.

    Although Scott was right, he didn't play well with others.

    Congratuations to Tony on scoring the Mac Pro, well deserved and for a good cause

  • Reply 12 of 33
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Tony is a great guy and didn't deserve to get booted from Apple the way he did.
    Although history is clearly on Scott Forestall's side as far as the decision of what OS to use for the iPhone.
    Tony wanted the iPod OS and Scott wanted a slimmed down Mac OS.
    Although Scott was right, he didn't play well with others.
    Congratuations to Tony on scoring the Mac Pro, well deserved and for a good cause
    I've always wondered why Steve decided to bring in Mark Papermaster rather than making Tony Fadell head of all device engineering. Unless he didn't think Fadell had strong enough hardware engineering chops?
  • Reply 13 of 33

    Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call an Apple fanboy!  :D  Congratulations on your new Mac Pro, Mr. Fadell.

  • Reply 14 of 33
    Hope he bought the Applecare warranty
  • Reply 15 of 33
    apple ][ wrote: »
    Isn't he ex-Apple?

    In that case, Apple doesn't have him.

    He is no longer with Apple.
    Tony co-founded Nest Labs with Matt Rogers.
  • Reply 16 of 33
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call an Apple fanboy!  :D   Congratulations on your new Mac Pro, Mr. Fadell.
    It would be cool to see Apple buy Nest, but I'm not sure organizationally where Tony would fit in. I doubt any of the current SVPs would work for him nor would he work under any of them. Unless he took over Dan Riccio's job. I remember last year there were rumors that employees under Bob Mansfield complained to Tim Cook that Riccio wasn't ready to take over Bob's position. I also noticed on theofficialboard.com that a product design engineering VP is now reporting to Jony Ive. Previous org charts (like published by Fortune) had this VP reporting to Mansfield. So maybe Riccio isn't the strongest leader for hardware. My vote would be for Apple to buy Nest and install Fadell as SVP hardware engineering. :)
  • Reply 17 of 33
    malaxmalax Posts: 1,598member

    I don't know the history here, but if this guy is responsible for the iPod, that's cool and all, but hardly qualifies him to be in charge of all Apple hardward engineering.  I'm assuming that he was the pre-iPhone/iPod touch guy when the iPod was a very well designed media player and nothing else.

  • Reply 18 of 33
    Apple may not have anything directly to do with it except the amount of net worth the current or former employees derive from Apple stock options which allows them to consider a donation like this.

    Heck of a tax write-off.
  • Reply 19 of 33
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Apple buys Nest for $?M. Tony heads up new Apple home-automation device sensor team. Wifi-bulbs, wifi-thermostats, wifi-smoke alarms and wifi external door locks with LE Bluetooth tech. So Apple could suddenly light, secure, heat and protect from fire your home. Seamlessly integrated with iOS 9. Apple-level simplicy, nothing to install on your device. What do ye reckon? Gone are the shabby third party products that require a computer science degree to install. With Apple supply chain economics in place home automation would have an oppertunity to go mainstream.

    When I say Apple-level simplicity we're talking wifi-bulbs with master-bulb capabilities, adhoc wifi connection for jumping onto your home connection and as soon as the bulb is turned on it appears as a alert on your iDevice as a new bulb being added to the network to which you merely need to enter a short pass code that was on the box to get control of the bulb and Ok it onto your home automation network. As in: Step 1 bulb in socket, switch light on. Step 2 popup appears on your iDevice automatically and your asked for the code on its box to add bulb to network; at which point every device with permission to control the network would be able to turn on and off the bulb or set a schedule. Schedules would be synced across all devices with network permission. So, plug in bulb, enter code, done.

    If Apple could get the price down on those bulbs and it was built into iOS with nothing to install I'd seriously consider switching my home to iBulbs. I'm a simplicity fanboy.
  • Reply 20 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by markbyrn View Post



    Hope he bought the Applecare warranty

     

    Where we're going, we don't need AppleCare! (flies off in DeLorean)

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