As part of iTunes 10, Apple just recently launched "Ping," a social network for music. Apple describes Ping as a network to "follow your favorite artists and friends to discover what music they're talking about, listening to, and downloading.” It works like a mix of Facebook and Twitter, with functionality to follow people, post comments, make recommendations, share plans to attend concerts, etc.
The concept seems to be an obvious extension of the iTunes Genius function, which provides purchase recommendations based on matching the characteristics of individual’s music purchases and libraries with music for sale in Apple’s catalog (a la Pandora’s radio engine). Ping goes a step further and allows users to provide recommendations to their friends explicitly via a recommend function or implicitly via the posting of what they are listening to or purchasing. The concept makes a lot of sense. Apple is attempting to tap into the powerful influence of a network of friends or associates, whose recommendations or habits have much greater purchasing influence than Genius is ever likely to have. It is also a logical extension into social networking for Apple, sticking to their bread and butter in music, but venturing out enough to add more value for their users and potential customers. Too often you see companies make a huge leap into the hot new thing and it so far away from a core competency that it is not executed well or customers (or users) simply don’t buy into it.
Some of the challenges for Apple are that if they continue to keep the system closed, inherently there will be some downsides with that approach to a social network. Additionally, will there be enough users to create an effective network with only the Apple/iTunes users or will users rebel against having access to only their “Apple” friends? Also, it's not clear how much real value it is adding for existing iTunes users.
Initial reviews are mixed, with some complaints regarding the functionality of the software, and arguments that Ping does not operate as a true network, with no connectivity to other networks like Facebook and Twitter. Some also are questioning whether there is enough “room” for another social network site out there that is completely separate from other platforms. How much capacity do people have to engage in another social network? The idea sounds great, but I'm not convinced it will catch on very quickly or at all. It's narrow focus and lack of integration with other social networks limit its value relative to the effort needed to get a benefit from it.
A few reviews of Ping:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/campuschatter/2010/09/mixed-reviews-for-apples-ping-.html
http://www.nowpublic.com/tech-biz/itunes-ping-review-apples-antisocial-social-network-2658911.html
Hi Aaron,
ReplyDeleteinteresting post. I test drove Ping almost right after iTunes 10 was available and I was a bit disappointed by the initial features, especially adding "friends" takes too long without any connection to other existing social networks, although the connection should be fairly easy given the APIs for Facebook.
In the past Apple often has shown to be responsive to user feedback and we might see upgrades to Ping soon.