One-of-a-Kind Products Designed by Jony Ive and Designer Marc Newson Sold Off at (RED) Auction

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.

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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.

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Top Rated Comments

Parkin Pig Avatar
155 months ago
Only the stupendously wealthy can afford to spend cash like this to buy one-off trinkets to impress their friends.
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.
Score: 73 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BillyBobBongo Avatar
155 months ago
Only the stupendously wealthy can afford to spend cash like this to buy one-off trinkets to impress their friends.
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.
Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)
2ms Avatar
155 months ago
There's way too much self-congratulatory attention to Apple design the last couple years. I think Steve must have kept a lid on things and now that he is dead people have been taking a lot of liberties. Apple doesn't have the class that they once did. The design of their products has gone downhill a lot. iOS7 would have never been approved by Steve. None of the current iPods would have been approved by him. The quality of OSX has even gone downhill, as I have had far more issues with it on my Retina MBP in 1.5 years than I did in all the rest of my 8 years of using Macs put together.

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.
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gwelmarten Avatar
155 months ago
Only the stupendously wealthy can afford to spend cash like this to buy one-off trinkets to impress their friends.
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.

This is a disgusting generalisation.
Score: 35 Votes (Like | Disagree)
NachoGrande Avatar
155 months ago
They donated millions and they get vilified. I guess no good deed goes unpunished. evil rich people :rolleyes:
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sheareb Avatar
155 months ago
Wonder if they took AppleCare! :eek:
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)