Mao Would Have Loved Apple’s China Apology

This morning, 17 days after China’s state media began a campaign against what it characterized as Apple’s Inc.’s discriminatory warranty and repair policies, and 12 hours after Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook apologized for them, I stopped by the Apple store on Shanghai’s Huaihai Road.

I’ve visited many times in the past, and it was as packed as ever with passersby checking e-mail on iPads and clerks running credit cards through readers. My efforts to strike up conversations with customers at the Genius Bar regarding Cook’s apology were met with indifferent shrugs and a couple of “it’s not important to us” dismissals. Cook appears to have known this already. “Close to 90% of our customers expressed satisfaction with our repair services,” he wrote in his apology letter. “And customer satisfaction is the most important metric by which Apple measures its success.”