Apple to Shut Down Failed Social Tool 'Ping'

By Jane McEntegart
published

You won't be Pinging anything after September 30.

Yesterday was a big day for Apple. Not only did the company takes the wraps off of the hotly anticipated iPhone 5, it also showed off new iPods and a new version of iTunes. Still, it wasn't all good news as Apple this week said goodbye to a failed product that never really took off.

 

Introduced in September of 2010, iTunes Ping is a music-orientated social network built into Apple's iTunes. It allows people to broadcast updates to their friends, follow their favourite artists, and see updates from friends and musicians they're following. At its launch, Steve Jobs described it as Twitter and Facebook meets iTunes. Sadly, Ping hasn't enjoyed much success.

This week we learned that Apple's Ping will not be included in the next version of iTunes. 9to5Mac reports that a message appearing on Ping states the service will shut down for good on September 30. What's more, it's not accepting any new users, so those that didn't sign up before now have officially lost out.

 

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Jane McEntegart
39 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Kami3k
    Guess Ping didn't just work.....
    Reply
  • DroKing
    Good less apple the merrier
    Reply
  • any article with apple and shut down in the title will brighten my mood
    Reply
  • ahnilated
    Someone must have had their firewall not allowing Ping. Who would name it Ping being most people think of ping as to ping a server.
    Reply
  • greghome
    ekgjlgkjany article with apple and shut down in the title will brighten my mood
    How about this?
    " Apple lawsuit leads to Samsung Shut down in America " :p
    Reply
  • cdburner5911
    Im surprised apple hasn't sued microsoft for its "bing" name, being too close to apples "ping" (even tho bing is older)
    Reply
  • freggo
    Unrelated question...
    Why are most postings in a BLACK font but every once in a while a post (with no thumbs down!) shows up in a light grey font ?

    Reply
  • internetlad
    Apple, the company you love to hate!

    seriously though, there are enough social networks around that it's time the herd started thinning a bit. File this up on the shelf with the apple newton and the pippin and call it a day.

    Next up, MySpace.
    Reply
  • internetlad
    freggoUnrelated question...Why are most postings in a BLACK font but every once in a while a post (with no thumbs down!) shows up in a light grey font ?I believe it's if the poster chose "negative" as the comment style, as I did with this one.
    Reply
  • internetlad
    internetladI believe it's if the poster chose "negative" as the comment style, as I did with this one.
    disregard that, i'm wrong and triple posting. wheeee!
    Reply