Customized Product (RED) Mac Pro revealed for upcoming charity auction
Auction house Sotheby's on Friday outed another collaboration between Apple SVP of Design Jony Ive and acclaimed industrial designer Marc Newson, this time a custom Product (RED) edition Mac Pro.
According to Sotheby's estimates for Lot 27, the "selected and customised" Apple desktop will go for between $40,000 and $60,000, though the final going price will likely be much more.
As with Ive's previous work for the Nov. 23 charity auction, including a one-off Leica M digital rangefinder, the Mac Pro has added flair above and beyond the normal retail version set to hit store shelves this December. Not much is revealed in the lot detail, though it appears from the pictures that the aluminum substructure and outer shell have been anodized in red.
In addition to the Leica and the Mac Pro, Ive worked with Newson and Bono on a pair of 18 karat rose gold EarPods. The Apple design guru is also listed as having a hand in a custom Range Rover, an Herm?s horse saddle and a Dom P?rignon bottle cooler (which includes a 1.5L Magnum bottle of Dom P?rignon ?noth?que 1966), among other red designs.
The charity event, titled "Jony and Marc's (RED) Auction," benefits the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
According to Sotheby's estimates for Lot 27, the "selected and customised" Apple desktop will go for between $40,000 and $60,000, though the final going price will likely be much more.
As with Ive's previous work for the Nov. 23 charity auction, including a one-off Leica M digital rangefinder, the Mac Pro has added flair above and beyond the normal retail version set to hit store shelves this December. Not much is revealed in the lot detail, though it appears from the pictures that the aluminum substructure and outer shell have been anodized in red.
In addition to the Leica and the Mac Pro, Ive worked with Newson and Bono on a pair of 18 karat rose gold EarPods. The Apple design guru is also listed as having a hand in a custom Range Rover, an Herm?s horse saddle and a Dom P?rignon bottle cooler (which includes a 1.5L Magnum bottle of Dom P?rignon ?noth?que 1966), among other red designs.
The charity event, titled "Jony and Marc's (RED) Auction," benefits the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
Comments
Man, not only do I REALLY wish I had some reason to buy a Mac Pro in the first place, but this thing ... yikes.
If I had the money to buy this, I'd build an entire room around it.
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2013/null-n09014.html#&i=36
They should sell a shiny chrome version. That would sell like crazy.
Don't forget about GOLD!
That is so 'Iron Man!' I want one!
YES!
forget Product Red. I want someone to make skins for the Mac Pro so I can have a nice blue Police Box and tell folks 'it's bigger on the inside'
Exactly.
That would be ... well, I guess it would be cool to US ... not so sure about anyone else. 
It's a beautiful computer but helping the poorest of the poor dying of AIDS, TB and Malaria by selling each other Range Rovers, Leica's, Dom Perignon, 18 karat gold earphones and $40,000 computers seems in bad taste to me.
Who said that?
I'm going to spray paint mine red ... well maybe ...
The 'bigger on the inside' joke is UK not US ... just saying
It's a beautiful computer but helping the poorest of the poor dying of AIDS, TB and Malaria by selling each other Range Rovers, Leica's, Dom Perignon, 18 karat gold earphones and $40,000 computers seems in bad taste to me.
This I don't get, at all. There are, for instance, HUGE fashion events to raise money for AIDS or hunger or whatever. People are wearing and bidding on -- as an example -- pairs of shoes that cost nearly $10k retail, and end up going for much, much more for that. People bid on gowns for sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Do you really think that if you got AIDS treatment, and were completely poor in some 3rd world country, you'd care that the money to help you came from some real rich person bidding on a pair of 5" strappy Louboutins?
Who cares as long as they raise a lot of money.
My thoughts exactly.
I'm going to spray paint mine red ... well maybe ...
The 'bigger on the inside' joke is UK not US ... just saying
Well, you know we love the Doctor right here in the States, too!
But I meant US (as in geek-y tech types) not U.S. (as in the United States). But I'm pretty sure you got the first time around.
Maybe Ive has one of these in his studio?
It's a fundraiser. Many people don't donate unless they get something in return. It's sad but true.
Who cares as long as they raise a lot of money.
There is this argument:
If these people truly cared about helping others, they would not need anything in return for their donation other than the knowledge that they helped; all this suggests is that the buyer actually just wants to raise their own prestige amongst their own friends. The one-off machine itself will probably be worth 3000-5000 or more, which could have been, drumroll, donated to charity. The time spent at the auction house, not to mention the cost of getting everyone there, etc, could have been spent helping charities. In short, Apple could just put a blurb on their page asking people to donate to charity (they could arrange it and all if they like) and that would actually probably get more money. Lots of media time and energy and money is being spent on covering this device, again more money that could be donated.
Then there is the argument that by doing this they are raising awareness and thus increasing donations. I'm sure there is data to support this (as there is to counter it, probably if someone searched).
There are two sides, or more.
For lack of a better word, Product Red competes with other charities for funds. How do you get people to donate to your charity? You let them "buy" something. that something could be a candy bar, a raffle ticket or these items.