Apple Removing Ping From Next Version of iTunes

[MacRumors]

In response to a question about Apple's Ping social network at the D10 conference last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook said "the customer voted and said 'this isn't something that I want to put a lot of energy into'."

Apple hasn't done much with Ping since it was released more than a year and a half ago, and Cook's statement indicated that trend would continue. Now, All Things Digital's John Paczkowski says that Apple will be discontinuing Ping, rather than letting it wither from neglect.

And rather than continue to maintain Ping, the company is abandoning it and using its partnerships with Twitter and Facebook to make its various software and service offerings social in a way that consumers actually care about.

Sources close to the company say that Ping, which still exists today in iTunes 10.6.3, will be gone with the software's next major release, likely scheduled for this fall. And at that point Apple's social networking offerings will shift to Twitter and new partner Facebook entirely.

Ping was intended to be a social network for music that would help users discover new music, and let users to follow favorite artists and friends. Ping would also create a custom chart showing music selections based on those followed.

Though Ping gained 1 million users in its first two days of availability, the service never really caught on.

Article Link: Apple Removing Ping From Next Version of iTunes

 

[Sixtafoua]

This is good to see. It always makes me cringe to see ping in the iTunes sidebar.

 

[iCaleb]

lol........ping.

 

[moderngamenewb]

This is good to see. It always makes me uncomfortable to see ping in the iTunes sidebar.

I tried it, but didn't care for it. I couldn't really get into it

 

[kirky29]

Maybe they should do something like Spotify, when you're listening to a song it shows up in the sidebar ticker thing...then people could click it to preview the song and maybe buy it.

And when you buy an album it shows up on your timeline etc.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

lol........ping.

lol.........iTunes.

Seriously. I haven't launched iTunes since... October of last year. And that was only to speed up migrating from my 3GS to my 4S.

Spotify FTW

For me to resume using iTunes... I don't know what Apple would have to do to make me go back.

 

[Porco]

So Ping... ponged.

 

[keysofanxiety]

I remember when I tried Ping briefly a few months ago. As a fan of heavy music, I was disgusted to find Justin Bieber and Katy Perry in the "Artists we recommend you follow".

It was very much a "Piss off, Ping" moment from then.

 

[needfx]

how far could such a music dedicated, strictly itunes based social media tool go?

bad bet

 

[Apple...]

RIP Ping

 

[Sith Vol]

Glad to see it go.

 

[Hastings101]

R.I.P. Ping, you will be greatly missed by the ten or so people that used you.

 

[marcusj0015]

Maybe they should do something like Spotify, when you're listening to a song it shows up in the sidebar ticker thing...then people could click it to preview the song and maybe buy it.

And when you buy an album it shows up on your timeline etc.

I think Last.fm integration would be a lot better than Ping, but Last.fm's pretty much dead too.

 

[NewbieCanada]

First the optical drive, now this! When will the madness end??

 

[wikus]

God I would love it if they removed everything except basic mp3 playback and a library.

iTunes is bloatware, its packed with so much crap that so many people have no use for. I myself dont own an iPod or an iPhone or an iPad nor do I use the music store. I never use the video capabilities because VLC is far superior. RAM and CPU usage gets pretty bad especially if you have a 200+ gb library (mine is 315gb). It boggles the mind as to why iTunes even has such a name when iMedia is far more fitting.

For now, I'll continue using Vox and Enqueue Both apps are much smaller with Vox using no more than 15mb of RAM.

 

[Tmelon]

Thank god. I'm tired of Ping wasting space. I'm looking forward to the major iTunes refresh later this year.

 

[Apple...]

So...fingers crossed for a major overhaul this fall?

 

[Stella]

I think Ping's short life span could have been predicted at launch!

It was a half arsed effort just to have some social functionality in iTunes ( I believe it was launched after Apple and Facebook couldn't agree terms ).

 

[hirshnoc]

What I did like about this is that different artists created pages so you could follow them and see when they released new stuff. But, I think you can already do that on straight iTunes?

There should be a way to just follow an artist (maybe using Fbook) after they kill it.

 

[theonekcrow]

RIP Ping.... We hardly knew ye! Literally!

 

[BJB Productions]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who predicted this the day it was released.

 

[Hrududu]

Probably one of the most forgettable things Apple has ever done. It got less attention than QuickTimeTV. Just a weak attempt at getting into the whole social network game.

 

[QCassidy352]

God I would love it if they removed everything except basic mp3 playback and a library.

iTunes is bloatware, its packed with so much crap that so many people have no use for. I myself dont own an iPod or an iPhone or an iPad nor do I use the music store. I never use the video capabilities because VLC is far superior. RAM and CPU usage gets pretty bad especially if you have a 200+ gb library (mine is 315gb). It boggles the mind as to why iTunes even has such a name when iMedia is far more fitting.

just a guess - they'll take out video soon to match the music/video split on the iOS devices.

Never used ping, glad to see it go.

 

[devilbond]

Upon it's release if felt that Apple just threw a half-thought-through plug-in into iTunes to see what would happen. If it was actually something new, or at least a clever implementation of something old, it could've worked. I honestly thought they'd improve it, but it's just sat there like a deformed step-cousin at a wedding. Some people talk to him to be nice, others out of genuine curiosity, but he'll only ever have 1 or 2 real friends and the rest of the world will always simply see him as a freak.

(... no, I'm not sure where that came from either)

 

[blueroom]

Good. Useless feature.