Apple unveils iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition
Apple Computer on Friday officially announced the iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition, which was first reported by AppleInsider in Thursday's edition.
"(RED) was created by U2 lead singer, Bono and Bobby Shriver to engage business in the fight against AIDS in Africa by getting the world's most iconic companies to make uniquely branded products," Apple said.
"A portion of the profits from these products goes directly to the Global Fund to fund programs for women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa. "
The iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED comes in a red aluminum enclosure and features 24 hours of battery life, Apple's easy-to-use Click Wheel and a thin and light design.
Apple will contribute $10 from the sale of each iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED to the Global Fund to help fight HIV/AIDS in Africa. It will also offer a $25 iTunes (PRODUCT) RED gift card available for purchase at Apple's retail and online stores next month.
"Now customers can buy the best music player in the world and do something to help the world at the same time," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We're honored to work with Bono, (RED) and this team to contribute to an incredibly important initiative and help change the way people think about AIDS in Africa."
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was established in 2002, with the support of the world's leaders and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, to dramatically increase resources to fight three of the world's most devastating diseases, and to direct those resources to areas of greatest need by supporting locally-driven strategies.
To date, the Global Fund has committed $5.2 billion (US) to more than 363 programs in 131 countries.
Pricing & Availability
The iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition is available worldwide in a 4GB model for $199 (US) through Apple's retail stores and the Apple Store. All iPod nano models include redesigned earbud headphones providing superior comfort, fit and sound quality, and a USB 2.0 cable. The second generation iPod nano features up to 24 hours of battery life and completely skip-free playback.
The iTunes (PRODUCT) RED gift card will be available through Apple's retail stores and*the Apple Store next month for $25 (US).
iPod nano requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port and Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or later and iTunes 7.0 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4), Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) and iTunes 7.0 or later. Internet access is required and a broadband connection is recommended.
"(RED) was created by U2 lead singer, Bono and Bobby Shriver to engage business in the fight against AIDS in Africa by getting the world's most iconic companies to make uniquely branded products," Apple said.
"A portion of the profits from these products goes directly to the Global Fund to fund programs for women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa. "
The iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED comes in a red aluminum enclosure and features 24 hours of battery life, Apple's easy-to-use Click Wheel and a thin and light design.
Apple will contribute $10 from the sale of each iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED to the Global Fund to help fight HIV/AIDS in Africa. It will also offer a $25 iTunes (PRODUCT) RED gift card available for purchase at Apple's retail and online stores next month.
"Now customers can buy the best music player in the world and do something to help the world at the same time," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We're honored to work with Bono, (RED) and this team to contribute to an incredibly important initiative and help change the way people think about AIDS in Africa."
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was established in 2002, with the support of the world's leaders and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, to dramatically increase resources to fight three of the world's most devastating diseases, and to direct those resources to areas of greatest need by supporting locally-driven strategies.
To date, the Global Fund has committed $5.2 billion (US) to more than 363 programs in 131 countries.
Pricing & Availability
The iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition is available worldwide in a 4GB model for $199 (US) through Apple's retail stores and the Apple Store. All iPod nano models include redesigned earbud headphones providing superior comfort, fit and sound quality, and a USB 2.0 cable. The second generation iPod nano features up to 24 hours of battery life and completely skip-free playback.
The iTunes (PRODUCT) RED gift card will be available through Apple's retail stores and*the Apple Store next month for $25 (US).
iPod nano requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port and Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or later and iTunes 7.0 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4), Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) and iTunes 7.0 or later. Internet access is required and a broadband connection is recommended.
Comments
BTW... in the article it points out "Apple's east to use click wheel." Should that be "easy to use"?
Good move !
i wish it would be sold by amazon and circuit city/best buy/target.
Still, to me this seems like an incredible misuse of the money. As I stated before, giving AIDS medicine to Africans is a wonderful charity, as long as there isn't something better to spend it on. In this case, it would be so much more effective to spend the money on education and economic development. Anti-retroviral drugs don't do ANYTHING to stop the spread of the disease, and in some cases increase the spread of the disease by increasing the amount of time it may be transmitted to another person (though I'm sure most people who know they're diagnosed with HIV try to be really careful, on balance, retroviral drugs can only increase the spread on the disease).
I'm all for helping people suffering, but wouldn't it help so many more future innocents avoid suffering if we focused on something to actually stop the disease?
If you think about it perversely, donating this money actually increases suffering, because every dollar you donate to antiretroviral medicine is a dollar you didn't spend on education or economic development.
That's CRAZY. This whole campaign is a sham.
You clearly have no concept of what $10 can do for an African family.
i like it.
i wish it would be sold by amazon and circuit city/best buy/target.
Yeah, you would think Target would be desperate to get their hands on those things. I mean, it's a freaking walking target logo. I like how it looks, though I'm sure plenty probably don't.
ie: $5 for 2GB, $10 for 4GB, and $20 from 8GB.
That's CRAZY. This whole campaign is a sham.
Oh yeah! because it only cost Apple $97 dollars to make a nano.</sarcasm>
Apple probably makes less than $40 profit per $200 nano.
$10 = 25% of the profits
Don't forget, Apple is a business, not a charity.
Apple is helping by giving people an incentive.
People can give directly without purchasing anything.
But if you've ever watched PBS you know it takes a lot of tote-bags to keep those stations running.
personally, I think apple should be donating money from ALL iPod sales.
ie: $5 for 2GB, $10 for 4GB, and $20 from 8GB.
Personally, I think you should be donating 5% of your income to charity. Are you?
let's say nano's are 50%, so that is 18,499,999. now let's pretend that each ipod variety offered (2gb, 4gb, 8gb) sells equally well, so we'll divide by 7. that's 2,642,857 each ipod type.
let's take 50% of that for the red ipod nano to quiet all the naysayers. that's 1,321,429 red ipod units sold. x $10 is $13,214,285 per quarter. and that's really cutting numbers b/c while nano's might be 50% of ipod sales, i'd venture to guess that the 4gb size sells the best (which is why it got the colors), and i'd venture to guess that not every color sells the same. the red looks nice to me. either way, 13.2 million dollars per quarter is a good amoutn of money to help Africa.
You clearly have no concept of what $10 can do for an African family.
This money doesn't go directly to African families.
Obviously Apple is a company. The only reason they're doing this is to improve their public image. Imagine if I were to do a charity run or something and then I say in small print "I will give 10% of the donations to charity!". It's the same principle here.
i just tried to find total 2005 ipod nano sales. but couldn't. so we'll estimate. i did see one figure that was 37 million ipods in a quarter.
Maybe this next quarter, but that's pretty high, I think that's the number of iPods sold in 2005. Last two quarters were about 8M each, last holiday season, 14M.
If you think about it perversely, donating this money actually increases suffering, because every dollar you donate to antiretroviral medicine is a dollar you didn't spend on education or economic development.
I don't think so, the only way you can say that is by assuming there is a fixed amount of money going to Africa. I'm not sure I can even go along with the idea that there is only a certain number of ways to fix the problem. The problem in Africa needs a multi-pronged approach, not just one or two.
You clearly have no concept of what $10 can do for an African family.
But it doesn't go to the African family, it technically goes to drug research in this case.
This money doesn't go directly to African families.
Obviously Apple is a company. The only reason they're doing this is to improve their public image. Imagine if I were to do a charity run or something and then I say in small print "I will give 10% of the donations to charity!". It's the same principle here.
The general rule of thumb or expectation is that charities will give 100% of what you donate and companies will give 0% of what you buy.
In reality, very few charities achieve this ideal and very few companies give a damn.
But it doesn't go to the African family, it technically goes to drug research in this case.
Because the drug manufacturers don't have enough money to fund this kind of research.</sarcasm>
If ANY industry should be expected to donate it is the pharmaceutical industry.
Because the drug manufacturers don't have enough money to fund this kind of research.</sarcasm>
If ANY industry should be expected to donate it is the pharmaceutical industry.
I'm sure they are funding this kind of research. The problem is that it costs a lot more money to fight AIDS than possibly a dozen other diseases combined. The virus is so tricky that in some people, it mutates several times in their life time, and (IIRC) it hides in some pretty sneaky places of the immune system. It makes malaria look easy to fight, one of the reasons malaria is still pervasive is corruption, drug dispensers only sell partial treatments even though they are not allowed to do that, so the parasite simply adapts.