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

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.

airpods pro year of the tiger
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.

apple chinese new year red envelopes

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!)

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Top Rated Comments

alexjholland Avatar
19 months ago
Shame they didn't use Winnie the Pooh. ?
Score: 35 Votes (Like | Disagree)
assb10yr Avatar
19 months ago
Where's the Christmas edition, ****ing Tim Apple
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
StupidOpinion Avatar
19 months ago
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?
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Pro_the_legend Avatar
19 months ago
Funny how they don’t do anything special for the rest of the world, sellouts.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
haruhiko Avatar
19 months ago

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. ('https://www.apple.com/jp/promo/newyear/terms.html') 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.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
haruhiko Avatar
19 months ago
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?
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)