Chicago Tribune - May 16, 2006
Mike Hughlett, Tribune staff reporter, mhughlett@tribune.com

Bono and Motorola Inc. on Monday unveiled a blazing red mobile phone in London, the latest installment in the Irish rock star's "Product Red" crusade to fight pestilence in the developing world.

The phone, a red version of Motorola's popular Slvr, went on sale Monday in the United Kingdom and is due in North America by fall.

Proceeds from products branded as Product Red flow to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. American Express, the Gap, Converse and Armani have also signed onto the program.

The donations from the red Slvr will come from Motorola and several European companies that sell mobile phones and wireless services.

In the United Kingdom, Motorola and retailers will contribute 10 pounds per phone (about 7 percent of its retail cost) to the Global Fund. Plus, UK phone networks will pony up 5 percent of the monthly revenue generated by the red Slvr.

With all contributions combined, the red Slvr could raise about $50 million per year if about 1 million are sold annually, said Ron Garriques, president of Motorola's mobile phone division. Garriques said that for the most part, Motorola's profit on the phone will be donated to the Global Fund.

The global marketing campaign for the red Slvr will likely be Motorola's biggest this year, Garriques said, adding it will cost in the "tens of millions" of dollars. Bono drove the concepts for the marketing campaign, Garriques said.

Garriques joined Bono and several British telecom executives, including Charles Dunstone, in London at the phone's unveiling Monday. It was Dunstone, head of a major British phone retailer, who had suggested Product Red to Garriques earlier this year.

So, a few weeks ago, Garriques had a long meeting in New York with Bono at the U2 frontman's apartment overlooking Central Park. That led to a Bono pilgrimage to Motorola's phone design center in the Loop.

The day ended with dinner at NoMI in the Park Hyatt, where Motorola Chief Executive Edward Zander joined Garriques and Bono.

Garriques confessed he's not too familiar with the music of U2, which started its ascent in the 1980s.

"I'm kind of stuck in the '70s," he said. "I'm a huge Neil Young fan. I'm a Springsteen fan. A Seger fan. But my wife is seven years younger than me and is a huge U2 fan. When I told her she was going to meet Bono [at dinner at NoMI], her knees nearly melted."

Another Motorola product--the Q--continued to be conspicuous by its absence this week. The Q, which is supposed to be a rival to the BlackBerry and Palm's Treo, was due out by the end of the first quarter. However, analysts say Verizon Wireless, which is slated to offer the phone, has continued testing it longer than expected.

Asked when the Q is coming out, Garriques said Monday, "If you don't see it within a week, I'll be depressed."

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