While in the technology world, Apple represents precision, elegance, and super care of every single detail. Every element from hardware to software development and marketing is painstakingly curated. This is why a recent yet stunning AirPods misspelling on the company’s official Chinese website made a big stir on the internet. In a momentary hiccup, the world-famous AirPods were dubbed “ArPods” — causing a humorous ruckus on social media. This goes to show, you NEED to be careful about everything you say, even the big brands, who protect their brand with their lives, make the simplest of mistakes in the public eye!
The spelling mistake with the AirPods was first reported by Chinese tech publication ITHome. A blunder slipped into the marketing copy on the product page for the soon-to-be-released AirPods 4. After running part of the text through a machine translator, he uncovered a product feature that constantly identified the product—this time with the missing “i,” turning AirPods into the nonsensical ArPods. This AirPods spelling error made the rounds very quickly, especially on Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo, where users came together to create and spread the hashtag「#Apple官方網站拼錯AirPods#」
This AirPods spelling mistake is not just a typing error, it is a comedy episode for a company of Apple’s reputation and high-end standard brand identity. Out of all consumer electronics, the AirPods lineup is one of the most successful and well-worn products in the business. The irony of that AirPods spelling mistake being dropped on a company-owned official channel in a market as vital as China could only be a touch more potent. We understand that a non-English-native companion wrote the copy, but the product has an official name (“AirPods”) and we imagine that that’s a globally-registered trademark that wouldn’t vary from market to market. Here, this AirPods spelling error was out of line with a global brand standard.
Apple Responded SwiftlyImage credits: Unsplash The company acted quickly to fix the AirPods spelling error soon after it started gaining traction online. After a return visit to the official Apple China site, the “Airpods” spelling error was indeed corrected, and the page referred properly to “AirPods” throughout. However, AirPods in Apple marketing spelling error lives on via screenshots and social media posts, even if the correction of a digital fix was swift. The incident shows that, in our digitally hyper-connected world, no small mistake stays hidden long. This AirPods spelling error going viral is a microcosm of just how closely brands the size of China-based global technology giant Apple co.
In the end, the AirPods spelling mistake is a human tale. There are thousands of people at trillion-dollar companies, and everyone makes mistakes. The person in charge of this AirPods spelling mistake probably didn’t think that the mistake would reach international news. The AirPods typo was surely an awkward moment for the tech even behemoth but easier to forgive, at least as long as it doesn’t become a trend. The swift fix indicated that the company’s QC systems, though hardly foolproof, are clearly agile. The entire AirPods spelling error saga is a case study in brand management and proofing in every international domain.
