(Red): Dell & Microsoft Announce Product Red XPS M1330 and XPS M1530 Edition Notebooks

Dell and Microsoft will release Product Red notebooks and am all-in-one desktop. Fifty dollars will be donated to the Global Fund for each Product Red edition Dell XPS M1330 and XPS M1530 sold. The funds will go towards AIDS treatment in Africa.

The Product Red laptops will have red lids (which has been available on both models since launch), a Product Red logo on the palm rest and a custom Windows Vista theme, which includes a custom sidebar and wallpaper. Steve Bono, one of Product Red’s founders helped customize the laptops.

I’m all for charity and corporate philanthropy, but Product Red has received criticism because it’s suspected that participating companies spend several times the amount of money advertising and promoting the products than they actually donated to the Global Fund.

Hopefully Dell and Microsoft can keep marketing costs in check, otherwise everyone would be better off if the companies just donated a lump sum to the Global Fund. I hope both companies announce a sizeable donation to kick things off.

Another thing that bothers me about this promotion is Dell’s only using its premium XPS line to raise money. Why not let Inspiron customers participate in this program? You can already order a red Inspiron notebook and I’m siure a portion of Dell’s customers would be glad to pay a premium to support the fund and get the custom badge and theme.

Hopefully, Dell and Microsoft can make this program a success. One idea to improve this program would be to allow customers to donate the difference between the MSRP of a notebook and the coupon discount price, or at least a portion of it. Say a customer was buying a $900 red Inspiron, and had a $100 coupon. She could chose to pay full price and donate the $100 to Product Red.

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