Apple to retire Ping social music network

In what could be seen as an admission of failure, Apple Inc. is finally retiring its social music network "Ping," a tech site reported Wednesday (Manila time).

 

The company, which has integrated other social services like Facebook and Twitter into its systems, may remove Ping from its next iTunes, All Things Digital reported.

 

"Sources close to the company say that Ping, which still exists today in iTunes 10.6.3 and the iOS 6 beta — where it doesn’t work, will be gone with the software’s next major release, likely scheduled for this fall," AllThingsD said.

 

Ping was started in 2010 as a social network for music, but did not appear to take off.

 

AllThingsD said Apple has apparently chosen not bothering to salvage Ping with the help of Facebook.

 

"In the end, Ping was a social network that was focused far too much on enabling commerce, and far too little on enabling social interaction. It wasn’t easy to find and connect with people on Ping. And that didn’t resonate with Apple’s customers all," it said.

 

It also quoted Apple CEO Tim Cook as saying, “We tried Ping, and I think the customer voted and said ‘This isn’t something that I want to put a lot of energy into.’” — TJD, GMA News