Apple's (PRODUCT)RED Era is Over, But What About the iPhone 18 Pro?

[Happy_John]

Not saying that fighting Aids is a bad thing, but the Product Red organization itself, IIRC, spent almost all of the money they brought in on expenses and almost none went to actually helping those in need. Its been a while since I remember hearing anything about it, so maybe it got better recently, but that was definitely the case early on.

It was better than nothing, and nothing is now what there is. That’s not a step upwards, it’s a step downwards.

“I won’t support charity or so because I suspect the money I donate will not be spent effectively” is not a sound argument. Even if 80% of the money is misappropriated, 20% is still a hell of a lot more than 0%.

And, in the case of Product Red, it didn’t cost consumers a cent. It only cost Apple shareholders. But it didn’t because Apple can write charitable initiative costs off against tax. So consumers would have lost nothing, irrespective of how the money was appropriated.

There was absolutely no financial or moral reason for Apple to discontinue their involvement. There might well have been a political reason.

 

[olavsu1]

As far as I know, RED is a professional cinema camera. So Apple no longer makes smartphones suitable for filming.

 

[Gummiwise]

For anyone who may be interested: The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is an independent multilateral financing partnership. (RED) was founded in 2006 as a private-sector fundraising initiative. (RED) is a separate organization that channels money to the Global Fund through marketing, branding, and corporate partnerships, but it is not the Global Fund itself. The Global Fund consistently directs the large majority of its resources to country programs, with overhead and administrative costs representing a small fraction of its total budget. Since its founding in 2002, Global Fund–supported programs have helped save 65 million lives and reduced the combined death rate from HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria by 61%. (RED) has raised over $800 million for the Global Fund, funding life-saving HIV programs that have reached more than 350 million people.

 

[Happy_John]

For anyone who may be interested: The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is an independent multilateral financing partnership. (RED) was founded in 2006 as a private-sector fundraising initiative. (RED) is a separate organization that channels money to the Global Fund through marketing, branding, and corporate partnerships, but it is not the Global Fund itself. The Global Fund consistently directs the large majority of its resources to country programs, with overhead and administrative costs representing a small fraction of its total budget. Since its founding in 2002, Global Fund–supported programs have helped save 65 million lives and reduced the combined death rate from HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria by 61%. (RED) has raised over $800 million for the Global Fund, funding life-saving HIV programs that have reached more than 350 million people.

Yes. Thank you for pointing this out.

It’s not about the colour of a phone.

 

[benface]

Nearly everyone uses an iPhone case and barely remembers what color the phone is under the case.

While that may be the case, I "disliked" your comment because I never had a case and never will.

 

[mk313]

It was better than nothing, and nothing is now what there is. That’s not a step upwards, it’s a step downwards.

“I won’t support charity or so because I suspect the money I donate will not be spent effectively” is not a sound argument. Even if 80% of the money is misappropriated, 20% is still a hell of a lot more than 0%.

And, in the case of Product Red, it didn’t cost consumers a cent. It only cost Apple shareholders. But it didn’t because Apple can write charitable initiative costs off against tax. So consumers would have lost nothing, irrespective of how the money was appropriated.

There was absolutely no financial or moral reason for Apple to discontinue their involvement. There might well have been a political reason.

Sure 20% is better than nothing, but there have to be other organizations Apple could partner with that contribute more than 20% (or whatever the number is) to the actual fight.

Since they started cutting back on the Product Red stuff during the last administration, I doubt that it was political. The last Product Red Phone was the 14. The iPhone 15 launched on Sept 22, 2023.

 

[wikiverse]

“I won’t support charity or so because I suspect the money I donate will not be spent effectively” is not a sound argument. Even if 80% of the money is misappropriated, 20% is still a hell of a lot more than 0%.

This is a perfectly good reason to not donate money to charity. An organisation that spends the bulk of its money on administration exists for the benefit and enrichment of the administrators, not for a good purpose.

In most cases like this, the organisations don't do any direct charity work - they usually give the remaining money to other organisations where it is absorbed by more administration costs, or worse given to governments or political candidates to campaign on an issue rather than solve it.

When this happens, it creates a dependency for all the people employed by the charity. Their incentive is now not to solve the problem but to make it worse, because their livelihood is based on the problem continuing.

In the long run 0% is actually better than 20% because at 0% the problem exists, but the 80% not being used to solve the problem is actually being used to make it worse.

 

[HuskerNKS]

Nearly everyone uses an iPhone case and barely remembers what color the phone is under the case.

I rather enjoy a no case phone...

 

[Wasp14]

Nearly everyone uses an iPhone case and barely remembers what color the phone is under the case.

There’s people who use clear cases….

 

[fgengineer]

I know I shouldn’t be making expensive decisions based on color, but I miss my Red iPhone 6 Plus.

I didn’t use cases back then either. Buy my clumsy hands have taught me better.

I would be so tempted to buy a red IPhone now, but i always hated that Apple would wait 6 months to come out with the color.

 

[KnowsHowItWorks]

We do need colors for a Pro iPhones. Dull colours were always unnecessary stigma.

 

[chars1ub0w]

I rather enjoy a no case phone...

You rather enjoy living dangerously.

 

[chars1ub0w]

There’s people who use clear cases….

True. I once had one, turned faintly yellow after a while.
But most cases are opaque, colored and cover the back of the phone.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

It was better than nothing, and nothing is now what there is. That’s not a step upwards, it’s a step downwards.

This is incorrect, as the original article states, Apple still frequently partners with RED on Apple Pay and retail promotions every year.
This from literally only three months ago…

Apple Raised $3 Million for Global Fund's AIDS Fight Through Apple Pay Promotion

This holiday season, Apple donated $5 to The Global Fund for every purchase made using Apple Pay on Apple.com, the Apple Store app, and Apple retail stores in the U.S. and other countries. The Global Fund this week said that Apple raised a total of $3 million for the organization, which is...

www.macrumors.com

 

[hagar]

BOOM the proof that apple doesn’t care about sida anymore !! Same goes for the Mother Nature and all those stuff ! Apple only thinks about money, they are now on TikTok, ton of bugs on macOS 26.4 (check forums and my mac updated to 26.5 beta while betas were off), Mac Pro is gone…

PLEASE TIM COOK RETIRE !!

How do you know things have not changed at (RED)? Hoe do you know they begged for a new product and Apple said no?

And what does this have to do with bugs? You think the marketing dept is fixing bugs?

And Mother Nature? They got so much backlash for that. Same with discontinuing the practice of wrapping their tech in dead animals. But they stuck with it. Good for them.

 

[XboxEvolved]

Loved the product red stuff before and still use a product red watch although it’s on its last legs. A dark red wouldn’t though wouldn’t be as good as a nice bright red and once again, the phone pro design is godawful now.

 

[Happy_John]

This is incorrect, as the original article states, Apple still frequently partners with RED on Apple Pay and retail promotions every year.
This from literally only three months ago…

Apple Raised $3 Million for Global Fund's AIDS Fight Through Apple Pay Promotion

This holiday season, Apple donated $5 to The Global Fund for every purchase made using Apple Pay on Apple.com, the Apple Store app, and Apple retail stores in the U.S. and other countries. The Global Fund this week said that Apple raised a total of $3 million for the organization, which is...

www.macrumors.com

AS stated in the article, the last time Apple offered core products as Product Red were "iPhone SE 3, iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, and Apple Watch Series 9". So Apple have withdrawn from this initiative - offering Product Red versions of iPhone, etc.

The headline not the article itself is "Apple's (PRODUCT)RED Era is Over.." so if I am incorrect, then so is the article itself.

 

[KeithBN]

Nearly everyone uses an iPhone case and barely remembers what color the phone is under the case.

I’ve had several iPhones literally since day 1 (original, 3GS, 4S, 5S, 11, now 13), and never had a case, never needed a case, never missed having a case.

I’m far from the only one.
Phone looks great, and is pretty solid, why would I want to hide it in a pointless case?

 

[Happy_John]

Sure 20% is better than nothing, but there have to be other organizations Apple could partner with that contribute more than 20% (or whatever the number is) to the actual fight.

Except they don't offer the same scheme ( offering branded phones and watches specifically to promote and generate charitable work) to work more effetely.

So we're back to my basic point. No "whataboutery" or "what if" changes the fact that 20% is more than 0%.

Since they started cutting back on the Product Red stuff during the last administration, I doubt that it was political. The last Product Red Phone was the 14. The iPhone 15 launched on Sept 22, 2023.

I didn't mention this or the last administration, or this administration, politics doesn't start and end with a single administration, and "politics" for an international cooperation does not focus only on one government.

 

[Flabergasted]

Not saying that fighting Aids is a bad thing, but the Product Red organization itself, IIRC, spent almost all of the money they brought in on expenses and almost none went to actually helping those in need. Its been a while since I remember hearing anything about it, so maybe it got better recently, but that was definitely the case early on.

So I actually have first hand knowledge on this. RED itself (it was called Persuaders) charged a fee to Appel and other campaign partners. But the giving component was separate and (at the time) structured around a trademark license fee. So it was actually quite efficient as the marketing fee did not directly scale ( in the deals I am aware of) with volume. All of this is public if you scour commercial co-venture filings in various US states, and various disclosures made by the RED partners.

They did some fancy stunts, like the auctions, which were certainly more about glitz and awareness raising that hard lean fund raising, but it was a unique model and Persuaders itself did not make massive bank on this.

As for the Global Fund part, that was lean and mean: ring fenced resources, no contribution to the Global Fund's own budget and running costs, and directly mapped to disbursements to a low-risk set of programs.

So you could say there are better/more directs ways to give to support the fight against AIDS, but it certainly wasn't a bad model. It just went places other charitable campaigns don't.

You could criticize how much Apple gave on each product though.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I’ve had several iPhones literally since day 1 (original, 3GS, 4S, 5S, 11, now 13), and never had a case, never needed a case, never missed having a case.

I’m far from the only one.
Phone looks great, and is pretty solid, why would I want to hide it in a pointless case?

Yes yes, we know.. every single time, people come out of the woodwork to tell just have to tell everyone they don't use a case. That's nice and all, but upwards of 90% of the smartphone population does. It doesn't really add anything to the discussions.

I use one because I don't want to baby my phone, and I often use and carry mine in harsh environments.

 

[ThomasJL]

Apple only donated a very small portion from each sale of a PRODUCT(RED) device, but even that was deemed way too much by Tightwad Tim.

 

[clg82]

That’s such a shame. Proceeds went to a good cause and it was a gorgeous color. For a company that keeps going on about helping people, enriching their lives, etc., not releasing a Product RED product just to keep more money for themselves is hypocritical

Hypocritical? Like typing your complaints from behind a keyboard to a company that does more than you do for helping people/enriching their lives etc?

 

[Kriss_De_Valnor]

I remember I had two iPhones RED, one was an XR. I really like that rich red colour and they held a better value when I sold them years later.

 

[doc james]

That’s such a shame. Proceeds went to a good cause and it was a gorgeous color. For a company that keeps going on about helping people, enriching their lives, etc., not releasing a Product RED product just to keep more money for themselves is hypocritical

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