Crunchy Confusion Over Pink “Breast Cancer” Shuffle
CrunchGear has picked up the story about the pink iPod Shuffles Target is carrying. The “special edition” comes with a $15 iTunes card, and retails for just $79 — a pretty good deal — with a portion of the proceeds supporting Breast Cancer Research Foundation. However, CrunchGear — and a lot of other blogs — seems confused. This isn’t something Apple is doing at all. Some company is repackaging new pink Shuffles (2nd generation) with the iTunes cards. iLounge gets it right:
Found in Target’s retail stores, this oversized clear plastic package contains a $15 iTunes Gift Card, a pink iPod shuffle, and a note that U.S. Merchants—a company also known as “Diversified Re-Packagingâ€â€”is making a $25,000 donation to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
The pink iPod shuffle—yes, the one that was discontinued earlier this month—and the iTunes Gift Card aren’t really “special edition†or charity-specific items, like Apple’s Product (RED) iPod shuffle, iPod nano, and iTunes cards, so there’s nothing about the items that makes them collectible. But it’s interesting to see how bundling (ahem, repackaging) can put an out-of-season iPod to good use, and still offer a real “deal†for buyers: thanks to the iTunes card, the $80 package is a $14 better value than just walking into an Apple Store and buying a new $79 iPod shuffle.
No, it’s not a scam, although the packaging certainly does make it easy to mistake this for an Apple “special edition” ipod. It also isn’t something Apple is doing. In fact, they probably weren’t even aware of it — but I’m guessing they are now.
But hey, if you don’t mind last year’s iPod, it’s actually a good deal. And since the iPod seems to still be in Apple’s original packaging (inside the reseller’s packaging), there shouldn’t be any warranty issues.
