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Apple's Ping has fatal pong, says CEO

Social networking fail

Apple's attempt to build social networking features into iTunes has failed, CEO Tim Cook has admitted. Speaking at the All Things D conference - D is for 'digital', apparently, and not 'deceased' - Cook said Apple had yet to decide the fate of the feature-cum-service.

“We tried Ping and I think the customer voted and said this isn’t something I want to put a lot of energy into," the fruity biz chief said.

Cook also hinted Apple would work more closely with Facebook for its social networking features.

Ping was unveiled in September 2010 in iTunes 10, allowing iTunes users to send playlists and notifications. After a brief flurry of interest it was never heard from again.

Facebook last year improved its music appeal by opening the platform to third-party music providers. Nominally nobody gets favoured nation status, but Spotify has been heavily promoted – and Spotify now only accepts new signups using Facebook's authentication.

It was only Cook's second public interview as Apple CEO. Gizmodo has some quotes here. You haven't missed much. ®

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