[Macworld]

Post your comments for Ping: What went wrong here

[Lisamacnewton]

I had mine linked to with Twitter which then posted on FB, so my problem was "kind of" solved.....I think they should scrap the name and start again. It was a nice idea, but lacked the complete integration that was needed in iTunes......

[graxspoo]

Basically the problem with Ping is, it wasn't a Facebook app. Who needs yet another social network? Apple should have simply integrated iTunes purchases into Facebook. That would have been a lot less engineering effort. I agree also with the 'marketing smell' that hung on it. An obvious aspect of this is, you couldn't post about non-iTunes related stuff.

[jk3021]

A big problem in Europe is the language support. So in Germany its only in German, in the Netherlands its only in dutch etc. The problem is that there are millions of Europeans that cannot use ping because we we move around a lot for work. Myself and all my friends are all English speakers (in Amsterdam), so we have not be able use ping even once

[jakecross]

To your last point about sharing, I think this is something that Google Music does quite nicely. If you buy an album, you can share a link to it (on Google+ or elsewhere) through which your friends can enjoy one free stream of the album. I think that's the kind of innovative and creative idea that Apple maybe could have tried with Ping.

[SteveSebban]

On top of this article, what might have really killed this wannabe social network is its lack of international support: if the iTunes Store is not open in for country, you just cannot use it at all. Ping just not appears in iTunes at all. In the global internet age, it is just... hmmm... embarrassing...

[SamGumgee]

Ping could have been more like iLike ♫ app. http://tinyurl.com/cpon9eb
And given iLike's demise just recently and no similar replacement, a hotbed for a new music based social network! FB's Music app is meagre and so is Spotify. Ping was just left sitting after launching... that's not the way to build a fanbase. Apple & FB also need to iron things out between them to further success. Right now it's just a void.

[feelingrandy]

The problem with Ping is that it was related to the worst program ever created, Out of itunes. Everytime i saw Ping I wanted it to go away much like out of itunes.

[jltnol]

What went wrong? One word.. Facebook.

[bastion]

graxspoo, on 01 June 2012 - 08:31 AM, said:

Basically the problem with Ping is, it wasn't a Facebook app. Who needs yet another social network? Apple should have simply integrated iTunes purchases into Facebook. That would have been a lot less engineering effort. I agree also with the 'marketing smell' that hung on it. An obvious aspect of this is, you couldn't post about non-iTunes related stuff.

And what about Ping users who had no interest in signing on with Facebook?

[EazyE]

I thought that tying everyone in a family to a family iTunes user ID was problematic. It would have been nice to create individual profiles all tied to the same iTunes account.

[dreyfus]

No idea if FB integration is such a big issue... I will never sign up for a FB account. I also did not mind the marketing smell; seriously: being iTunes only, what else should it have been?

I saw two major flaws with Apple's social experiment Ping:

1. Demanding real name use while everything else in iTunes works with pseudonyms. I am a, in some specific business areas, well-known consultant, and my name (combination of first names and last name) only exists once world-wide. Just signing up for Ping would have "published" my existing (almost 600) movie and record reviews under my own name, 100% obvious for everybody. As my music preferences do not go well with my international clients, I am out.

2. Fragmentation. File sharing (back then) in Mobile Me – now dead, image sharing in Gallery, media-related stuff in Ping, game scores in Game Center... Ping was not only not integrated with Facebook, it was just another isolated and very narrow piece of a puzzle that simply fails to become a picture. Apple's "social", and other online services barely make any sense. I still can't save from iWork apps (on the desktop) to iCloud without using a browser (and sharing is completely dead), I sit on my terrace and download a song from iCloud (stuttering and breaking up), while it sits on a Mac Pro 15 feet away on the same network... Apple never understood Web services, and at that point I assume they never will.

[Rugby]

Ping really didn´t understand what it was, and I realized that what I wanted was something similar that f ex Spotify has, easy way to share, be it via FB but at least share and see what friends play and share.

[DlBetty]

I think it's possiblly due to a lack of knowing what it is! I got my first IPhone, first Apple device ever last year, and I love it but when I clicked on PING I got a warning that I would not be private any longer and all would be able to see my preferences, something like that so of course wanting to maintain privacy settings I clicked to leave it off. I honestly had no idea it was supposed to be a Social Network. I think I use every other service on the phone and I am happy with them including Siri, jut a thought. I would have tried it if I knew what it was. I never bothered to look after seeing the privacy warning, perhaps it's a bit too strong.