Ping, the pseudo-social network once proudly baked into iTunes, will be no more by the end of the month, Apple announced on Thursday. It's a smart (if overdue) move, but now the company needs to get more serious about integrating established social networks into its products.
Amid celebrated hardware launches, anticipated operating system updates, and insane revenue numbers, Ping stood out as the most glaring product-related stain in Apple's recent history. Nobody liked it, and the word Ping practically became shorthand for what happens when a tech giant launches a new product or feature only to see it fizzle.
Apple deserves some credit for recognizing that Ping wasn't working and deciding to focus elsewhere. After all, it rakes in billions of dollars each quarter, the vast majority of which comes from selling mobile hardware, followed by things like MacBooks and iPods, tied together by a converging pair of operating systems. The company has ...
