Dell and Microsoft will join their forces in an initiative to support the (Red) Foundation efforts to fund AIDS-fighting drugs in Africa.

The (Red) Foundation was created by Bono and Bobby Shriver, Chairman of DATA and a nephew of President John F. Kennedy, to raise awareness and money for The Global Fund by teaming up with the world's most iconic brands to produce (PRODUCT) RED branded products. A percentage of each (PRODUCT) RED product sold is given to The Global Fund.

Under the new initiave, Dell will start selling two (Red) laptops, XPS M1330 and M1530 laptop computers, which start at $1,149, and one desktop, the XPS One, priced at $1,599.

Dell XPS M1530 was launched in November last year and it is a 15.4-inch notebook, equipped with a fingerprint reader, with touch-sensitive multi-media buttons, as well as with a built-in web camera. In its standard configurations the notebook comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 processor inside, with 1 GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667 Mhz and a 120 GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive.

XPS M1330 was launched in June 2007 and it is a lightweight 13.3-inch notebook, with a starting weight of 3.973 pounds.

A special version of Microsoft’s latest OS Windows Vista, Red Windows Vista Ultimate that includes specially themed desktop wallpaper and sidebar gadgets, will power all the products. The Global Fund will receive $50 for each laptop sold and $80 for each desktop.

Besides the computers, Dell will offer a (Product) Red printer, the 948 all-in-one printer. Dell will make a $5 contribution to the Global Fund for each purchase.

Dell’s (Red) Products will go on sale first in the United States and will be available in 30 countries by the end of this month.