Apple's (Product) RED Charity Contributions Reach $70 Million

If Apple just made a properly RED iPhone 5c, the number would've been much, much, higher!

A bright red 5c would look awesome

kmj2318 said:

A bright red 5c would look awesome

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With a white front- yes!
(Like the iPod Touch ProductRED version.)

So 5 million in 9 months? And 65 million in seven years before that.

Even if the 5 million don't include the 1 million Mac Pro, this should really give you an idea how the iPod is declining in relevance.

I wish apple would release a red iPhone. Or maybe even just red earpods?

While any amount is welcome, for a company with more revenue than half the world's countries have in GDP, I would like to see Apple commit to much more than this. How about giving 10% of their revenue to humanitarian charities like counter-trafficking, poverty relief, cancer research and AIDS research? Seiously. Can you imagine the good that could be accomplished?

Great campaign. One of the things I really like about Apple as a company.

The red stuff looks great too!

I would love a Sith MBP or mac mini!

Seconded with the calls for a red iPhone.

Love my (product) RED 4th gen nano and iPad mini smart case, the latter going well with the white iPad retina mini. If I wasn't still in contract for my iPhone 5, I'd love a white & gold 5s with the red Apple leather case to match my retina mini.

That is really a great figure, kudos!

foobarbaz said:

So 5 million in 9 months? And 65 million in seven years before that.

Even if the 5 million don't include the 1 million Mac Pro, this should really give you an idea how the iPod is declining in relevance.

I wish apple would release a red iPhone. Or maybe even just red earpods?

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I'm not seeing why you're singling out the iPod. Apple's other lines contribute towards the Red fund as well, not just the iPods. By your reasoning, the iPads and iPhones are declining as well.

Tankmaze said:

That is really a great figure, kudos!

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That wouldn't have happened if Steve was still there!

Bla Bla Bla.
How about....I dint know......focuse on new/innovative products???

kudos on the campaign.

its great to see that collectively people have bought enough red products to put some sizeable money into the research.

But just begs the question: if Red is completely consumer driven, based on the sales of RED products.

Why can't Apple use some of the dozens of billions in the bank, sitting hoarded, unused, and completely out of the economy... and donate some of that? what about matching the 70m with another 70m out of the Apple coffers and REALLY try and put a dent on the AIDs epidemic.

Or Apple could just donate $100 million to the charity directly and it wouldn't leave a dent on their accounting books


Nothing impressive when Apple could just donate directly. $70 million TOTAL OVER SEVERAL YEARS is truly laughable from Apple when you see their obscene profits every quarter

..this isn't a rumor....

I've written Apple a few times asking them to release a (Product) RED iPhone. I suppose it would put too much of a dent in their bottom line.

brianvictor7 said:

While any amount is welcome, for a company with more revenue than half the world's countries have in GDP, I would like to see Apple commit to much more than this. How about giving 10% of their revenue to humanitarian charities like counter-trafficking, poverty relief, cancer research and AIDS research? Seiously. Can you imagine the good that could be accomplished?

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Altruistic but unrealistic. For profit companies exist to increase shareholder value (or owner value if not split into shares) and not for philanthropy. I totally agree that it would be very good and beneficial from a human point of view. But it's not reality and would potentially be bad for business, especially if sales declined or tough times approached.

kind of want to see what a RED rMBP/iMac would look like

nwcs said:

Altruistic but unrealistic. For profit companies exist to increase shareholder value (or owner value if not split into shares) and not for philanthropy. I totally agree that it would be very good and beneficial from a human point of view. But it's not reality and would potentially be bad for business, especially if sales declined or tough times approached.

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While I agree, from a corporate standpoint, using your own money to donate to charities is pretty, Anti-capitolistic..

But, when you're a company like Apple, whose raking in Billions in profits a quarter. What would $100 million, once a year really do to the bottom line?

there's a immaterial principle here, if Anything, actually using Apples own money would probably be a great move for their PR and overall sales.

Currently, Apple is NOT known for being the most philanthropic company in the world. Jobs was very often seen as pretty selfish individual who put more behind personal wealth than efforts in charity.

Apple has not yet shaken that image. Add to the fact that hoarding cash, which Apple has been doing for the last few years, with Little changes to dividends or any relation to the stock owners, which overall is not beneficial to the economy,

The LEAST they could do is use some of that extreme amount of hoarded money for some altruistic means, instead of lining the bank accounts of a few dozen people, They might even make some friends out of those on the fence about Apple products

*Damn, my inner socialist is showing

LordVic said:

there's a immaterial principle here, if Anything, actually using Apples own money would probably be a great move for their PR and overall sales.

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Bill Gates has donated billions towards his and Melinda's foundation. What has that done for Microsoft?

Apple is already swimming in PR and sales - attempts to increase that via charitable donations would be a non-starter. As such, it makes sense (albeit perhaps not in the moral sense) that they pay more attention to their stockholders and focus on profits instead.

kmj2318 said:

A bright red 5c would look awesome

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anodized red iphone 5s (or 6) and iPads would look awesome. I have the red ipod touch, and it is amazing. perfect shade of red, so vibrant in the sun. I want a sports car of that shade of red.

in before the first "Apple is such a cheap bastard and could/should do so much more!!!" whine...

Aluminum213 said:

Or Apple could just donate $100 million to the charity directly and it wouldn't leave a dent on their accounting books


Nothing impressive when Apple could just donate directly. $70 million TOTAL OVER SEVERAL YEARS is truly laughable from Apple when you see their obscene profits every quarter

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They could have easily not donated or participated in anything, it goes both ways. I don't see how 70 million over several years is laughable when that figure could easily be zero. A company is still a company, in fact they don't have to do any of this. 70 million is still something to people who don't even have that kind of money AND to a very human cause. Laughable? Geez.

horsebattery said:

Bill Gates has donated billions towards his and Melinda's foundation. What has that done for Microsoft?

Apple is already swimming in PR and sales - attempts to increase that via charitable donations would be a non-starter. As such, it makes sense (albeit perhaps not in the moral sense) that they pay more attention to their stockholders and focus on profits instead.

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Gates unfortunately only found his Philanthropic self after he was CEO of Microsoft and when he took a less active role in the company.

However, Microsoft has, and still has quite a bit of Philantrhopic activities and have raised a few billion of their own funds for different charities.


http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/

dont get me wrong, They could do more too

But I do agree, if you're purely looking from a profit perspective, There's little incentive for Apple (or any company) to be charitable.

Giving money away for free isn't really in the corporate mindset

LordVic said:

Gates unfortunately only found his Philanthropic self after he was CEO of Microsoft and when he took a less active role in the company.

However, Microsoft has, and still has quite a bit of Philantrhopic activities and have raised a few billion of their own funds for different charities.


http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/

dont get me wrong, They could do more too

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The point was that philanthropic activities are not necessarily tied to PR/sales, the latter of which is the goal of any business - they are not expected to be charitable, from an objective standpoint. Sad, yes, but I'm just trying to explain why it is even less of an incentive for Apple to contribute at all - and if they do, they would probably do so for tax code loophole purposes before considering it out of the goodness of their hearts instead.