Apple to drop Ping social/music network

Apple says its Ping social network tied to iTunes music, which failed to gather a significant following, will be dropped in the next iTunes version. Ping, which still exists today in iTunes 10.6.3, will be gone with the software's next major release expected in the fall, sources told allthingsd.com. At that time Apple will shift its social networking offerings to Twitter and new partner Facebook entirely, allthingsd.com reported Wednesday. Analysts said Ping, introduced in September 2010, focused too much on enabling commerce and too little on enabling social interaction, with users having trouble finding and connecting with others. Apple chief Tim Cook acknowledged that in recent comments. "We tried Ping, and I think the customer voted and said, 'This isn't something that I want to put a lot of energy into,'" Cook said.