Yesterday, the one-of-a-kind products designed by Apple's senior vice president of design Jony Ive and designer Marc Newson were sold off at Sotheby's charity auction to benefit Product (RED), with winning bids for the four products ranging from $461,000 to $1,805,000.
Most notably, the one-of-a-kind red Mac Pro designed by the duo was sold for $977,000, with the desktop computer originally estimated to sell at a max of $60,000. Additionally, the pair of solid gold Apple EarPods from the designers sold for $461,000 and was previously estimated to grab a max bid of $25,000. The special edition Leica camera and the one-of-a-kind aluminum desk sold for $1,805,000 and $1,685,000, with both originally estimated to sell at max prices of $750,000 and $500,000 respectively.
The auction also included the sale of many other items curated and in some cases customized by Ive and Newson, such as a Steinway & Sons grand piano that sold for $1,925,000 and a customized magnum of Dom Perignon 1966 with a custom red label that sold for $93,750.
Both designers have gotten a great amount of press coverage over the past few weeks leading up to the auction, with the designers being interviewed by Vanity Fair to talk about the collaborative design process and the amount of work that went into the products, as well as an interview on the Charlie Rose Show discussing their overall obsession with perfection. The two had also previously appeared in a video discussing the auction and their role in it.
In total, all of products auctioned off at the special event raised nearly $13 million. Proceeds from the auction will go to Product (RED), a longtime Apple partner. Apple has raised more than $65 million for the charity since 2006.
Top Rated Comments
Good cause? Call me cynical, but isn't it the greed of the stupendously wealthy that causes the uneven distribution of wealth that leads to poverty and hardship in poorer parts of the world (devastation of rain forests for cattle raising, abuse of workers for cheap electronic manufacturing, private ownership of freshwater supplies etc).
The 'saintly' folk who bought these goods will no doubt get a massive tax break on these charitable purchases, and alleviate any guilty feelings (if they are indeed capable of such an emotion) connected with the origins of their income.
Damned if you do...damned if you don't.
It's all just very disappointing. Seeing a company lose what was great about it. All for ego. That's how things appear, at least. This "Designed by Apple" and all the talk about the individual people who work within the company. It's just low class. The products aren't as good as they used to be, yet instead of working on that, you've got all this other kind of famous celebrity brand name designer crap.
Apple, get your act together if it's at all possible. Maybe it isn't without Steve. Maybe you guys needed him to make the right decisions. But you gotta try, because things are coming apart.
This is a disgusting generalisation.