WWDC 2012 has already witnessed a bunch of launches and upgrades in the category of hardware and software consumer products by tech giant Apple Inc. Although, in contrast to the introduction of new products, the Cupertino company also has plans to discontinue one of their past offerings which they brought for their dedicated users.
Known to all, one of the most eagerly awaited launches by Apple in the WWDC 2012 event was the next version of the operating system -- iOS 6. And rumor has it that with the release of iOS 6 this fall, Apple will reportedly put a full stop on the Ping iTunes service.
The social network for music, introduced by the company in September of 2010, has not been much of a success for Apple since its launch, reportedly.
Rumors of this recent buzz were swirling after All Things D reported the same, citing sources close to the company. In their report, All Things D mentioned that rather than continuing to maintain Ping, Apple 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.
Further the report also revealed 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. And at that point Apple's social networking offerings will shift to Twitter and new partner Facebook entirely.
Few reports have even noted that in the spotlight session at the D10 conference in May, Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted that the company had given up on Ping in May, however, he didn't precisely quote that Apple will kill the service.
Cook was, reportedly quoted saying, "We tried Ping and I think the customer voted and said this isn't something I want to put a lot of energy into."
According to analyst data records, unlike Apple's hardware and software products, most of which have been tremendously successful in the last couple of years, the company's social network has been poorly received from the very beginning.
Besides the fact that it was available only to a limited subset of iTunes users, it also had issues with spam and a serious lack of artist profiles.
Moreover, with the announcement of Facebook integration with iOS 6, which is now almost an integral part of the OS (just like Twitter), it makes sense that Apple is no longer interested in maintaining Ping.
Talking about Ping's failure story, it debuted in 2010 when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs unveiled iTunes 10. "It's sort of like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes," Jobs said of Ping, and went on to say that the network was all about music. At the time critics had mixed feelings about the feature's future prospects.
Initial adoption was promising as over one million users signed up within the first 48 hours, but momentum slowed and it seemed Ping was destined to become yet another Apple side project.
However, later reports revealed that Apple had contacted Facebook for possible integration with the worldwide social network, but "onerous terms" kept that from becoming a reality. Hopes were rekindled when Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg was invited by Jobs to discuss Ping over dinner, however, the meeting didn't draw any conclusions.
Since then, the music discovery network has been downgraded with no substantial updates in the pipeline, which logically hinted that the end is near.
