Apple Celebrates Chinese New Year With Special-Edition AirPods Pro and More

[MacRumors]

In celebration of the upcoming Chinese New Year on February 1, Apple has released special-edition AirPods Pro with a custom-designed tiger emoji through its online store and retail stores in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao.

2022 is the Year of the Tiger on the Chinese calendar. The special-edition AirPods Pro have a custom-designed tiger emoji printed on the wireless charging case, with a larger red version printed on the AirPods Pro box. When purchased at Apple retail stores in China, customers have also received a set of 12 red envelopes with each of the Chinese zodiac signs printed on them in emoji form. It is a Chinese New Year tradition to gift red envelopes to your family and friends, often with money inside.

Photo Credit: ifanr via Weibo​

The special-edition AirPods Pro are otherwise identical to the standard ones, and priced equally.

In China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, customers can also take part in a free in-store or virtual Today at Apple session called "Share Your Love" in which they will create personalized greeting cards for the New Year.

Apple also has Year of the Tiger artwork and decals on display at select retail stores in China.

Earlier this week, Apple unveiled special-edition Beats Studio Buds for the Chinese New Year. The custom Beats feature a red design with gold tiger print accents on the earbuds and charging case as a tribute to the Year of the Tiger. They are available starting today, but only in China, with pricing set at 1,099 yuan.

(Thanks, Michael Steeber!)

Article Link: Apple Celebrates Chinese New Year With Special-Edition AirPods Pro and More

 

[4743913]

Is that traditional art emojified or new emojis?

 

[alexjholland]

Shame they didn't use Winnie the Pooh. ?

 

[nattK]

Is that traditional art emojified or new emojis?

Apple emojis wearing a tiger costume/hood.

 

[JPack]

Apple branded red envelopes, nice attention to detail.

 

[incoherent_1]

Don’t know why they only sell these in Mainland China. There are plenty of places with significant populations that celebrate CNY (Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, etc.).

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Limited edition! I'm sure they will sell out quickly.

 

[assb10yr]

Where's the Christmas edition, ****ing Tim Apple

 

[MBAir2010]

David Letterman would wonder if that airpods box would leak

 

[tridley68]

Don’t know why they only sell these in Mainland China. There are plenty of places with significant populations that celebrate CNY (Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, etc.).

Maybe Chinese knock offs

 

[Pro_the_legend]

Funny how they don’t do anything special for the rest of the world, sellouts.

 

[Krypton Deer]

It's Apple's usual way to celebrate festivals in different parts of the world.

But deals are everywhere for AirPod Pro and the second gen is expected to come soon, so it's not the best idea to purchase this tiger edition. I'm seeing 10-15% off from other retailers.

 

[StupidOpinion]

why are there people upset about this? you guys realize that just because the china government is corrupt does not mean that the people living there can't have good things, right?

 

[haruhiko]

Really funny that you people have to insult a culture that’s observed by people in China, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan (they celebrate on 1 Jan with the Gregorian calendar after WWII) and many Chinese or East Asian communities in the world (read: 1/4 people in the world?) just because you don’t like a certain government (and just because Apple puts a freaking tiger drawing on the AirPods case). Racial discrimination is not allowed unless it’s to the Chinese people and anything related to China?

 

[aidler]

I mean, for (how much was that again?) over $ 200 million, Tim can do China 1 or 2 favors and in the process include some other countries in the region.

 

[julit0]

Main issue I have with this: It's not just China celebrating the year of the Tiger, but all Asian cultures that follow the Lunar calendar. Unfortunately, they've "cornered the market" and got it named "Chinese New Year"...but that's in general. People on the street in the US would pretty much call it "Chinese" vice "Lunar".

 

[julit0]

Limited edition! I'm sure they will sell out quickly.

I bet they'll be on e-bay for 2-3 times or more value.

 

[Lcgiv]

Really funny that you people have to insult a culture that’s observed by people in China, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan (they celebrate on 1 Jan with the Gregorian calendar after WWII) and many Chinese or East Asian communities in the world (read: 1/4 people in the world?) just because you don’t like a certain government (and just because Apple puts a freaking tiger drawing on the AirPods case). Racial discrimination is not allowed unless it’s to the Chinese people and anything related to China?

Really funny that this culture is only being marketed to specifically in places tied to the mainland or under regional influence. Not in Japan, not in Korea, not in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia or anywhere else that has populations celebrating the lunar new year, which would include many western countries. Who is really insulting all those others who celebrate this?

 

[haruhiko]

Really funny that this culture is only being marketed to specifically in places tied to the mainland or under regional influence. Not in Japan, not in Korea, not in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia or anywhere else that has populations celebrating the lunar new year, which would include many western countries. Who is really insulting all those others who celebrate this?

For instance, Apple sells 福袋 (Lucky Bag) in Japan during new year. Do I need to list them all out? Just because MacRumors makes an article out of it doesn’t mean that Apple has no regional cultural celebration in other countries. They also celebrated Indian festivals. Problem is that whenever China is mentioned some of you people get crazy and get a free pass to attack.

 

[Kevin2055]

Main issue I have with this: It's not just China celebrating the year of the Tiger, but all Asian cultures that follow the Lunar calendar. Unfortunately, they've "cornered the market" and got it named "Chinese New Year"...but that's in general. People on the street in the US would pretty much call it "Chinese" vice "Lunar".

It is originated from China from 2000 years ago.

 

[mrjayviper]

Shame they didn't use Winnie the Pooh. ?

it's the year of the tiger...

 

[iSayuSay]

We need the next gen AirPods Pro soon. These buds are getting a bit outdated compared to 3rd gen AirPods or even the new Beats Fit Pro.

Improved waterproofing, sound quality, ANC, and battery life. Also the case needs some sort of waterproofing considering some use it for sport.

 

[Guacamole]

pathetic really.. selling out to that country.. where was the Christmas edition ?

 

[ginkobiloba]

pathetic really.. selling out to that country.. where was the Christmas edition ?

Yeah, next, they'll start selling out even more by adapting their website's marketing material to local events, and start translating MacOS and iOS and all their apps to all those weird foreign languages. Sellouts ..
( oh..wait..)

 

[svish]

Nice engraving. Good that the pricing is same as the normal variant.