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Apple announces iTunes 10 with Ping Social Network

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Re: Apple announces iTunes 10 with Ping Social Network

#31

This is how Apple rolls and I must say I am impressed although it was expected. They have long been sitting on one of the strongest and certainly most profitable "social" networks. Now they have used it to do one of the most classical goals in business. Profit maximization. I don't even think this is something other companies can learn much from as most seem to be walking around like lemmings trying to incorporate fe…

You say it was expected, yet I heard no one predict it.

Re: Apple announces iTunes 10 with Ping Social Network

#32

It's interesting that this is only for music. You can see this being just as applicable for movies and tv shows - and of course apps. Presumably this is a toe in the water and they'll extend it if it works. But this certainly has lots of potential for extension.

Absolutely. The choice of "Ping" for its name, rather than a more music-centric name might indicate they're keeping the door open to extend it to the whole store. (I'll add books to your list) edit: one good reason I see to start off with music (besides the fact that it makes sense for iTunes) is that it's more common in the music industry to "follow" an artist, than it is for TV or movies. So, right from the start a…

"I'll add books to your list"

I bet 'gifting' people in your Ping friends network with music (and apps, books later on) will be a profitable feature for Ping, when Apple implements it.

Re: Apple announces iTunes 10 with Ping Social Network

#33

I'm skeptical about Apple doing a social media platform, yet iTunes is a perfect trojan horse. It might not even have to be good to succeed.

It's pretty amazing the number of things that have been smuggled into the old SoundJam: Quicktime, Webkit (occasionally Safari), the music store (expanded to video and games and apps too), Genius recommendations, and now a social network.

Ahh, good ol' SoundJam. Those were the days.

I really didn't like iTunes at first -- I stuck with SoundJam for a good long time. Until I moved to OS X, actually.

Re: Apple announces iTunes 10 with Ping Social Network

#34
post #9

I really enjoyed that "open standards" event, which was broadcast via HTML5 that only worked in Safari and on Mac.

One possible reason to restrict would be that they used the event as sort of a beta test for streaming/live broadcasting infrastructure/process.

Sort of like Gmail with the invites. Artificially restrict access, so you don't need huge scale from the get go.

Re: Apple announces iTunes 10 with Ping Social Network

#36
I think this will be the most monetarily successful social network yet. While Facebook has a huge mindshare I don't think they are very good at turning that mindshare into money in their own coffers.

Apple is really good at daring to ask for money for their services. While other companies often rely on ads or even more nebulous ways of making money, Apple just asks their users to pay money.

I really like this model of paying for what I get. I means that I am the customer, and not the product.

Re: Apple announces iTunes 10 with Ping Social Network

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. The choice of "Ping" for its name, rather than a more music-centric name might indicate they're keeping the door open to extend it to the whole store. (I'll add books to your list) edit: one good reason I see to start off with music (besides the fact that it makes sense for iTunes) is that it's more common in the music industry to "follow" an artist, than it is for TV or movies. So, right from the start a…

" I'll add books to your list " I bet 'gifting' people in your Ping friends network with music (and apps, books later on) will be a profitable feature for Ping, when Apple implements it.

Funny because I meant that in the sense that simonsquiff didn't mention the books in his comment, but you're right.

When gifting right now, I don't think you have any way to know if the recipient has or not the song/app. I haven't gifted songs too much, so I'm not sure what happens in that case. Ping might be able to avoid this situation.

Re: Apple announces iTunes 10 with Ping Social Network

#38
Given how poorly iTunes 9 runs on my quad-core Win7 machine with gigs and gigs of ram, I'm not particularly excited by this news. Wake me up when they've completely rebuilt iTunes. The only reason I keep it around is for my iPhone - I've switched to Zune (of all things) as my music manager, and actually quite like most of how it organizes things.

On a less grumpy note, the $99 Apple TV they just launched is pretty smooth looking, the only thing I feel grumbly about regarding that is the absence of Hulu. But that's a topic for a different thread...

Re: Apple announces iTunes 10 with Ping Social Network

#39

Facebook must be crapping themselves a little - games, music, video and all the social aspects tied into a piece of software that's deeply integrated into a ton of people's lives.

But Facebook has a client accessible in every platform out there and it is even accessible by a common browser, whereas with Ping I will need iTunes or an Apple device/software to use, also it probably will not have an API.

I think Apple is just making things to profit more as a content distributor that it is becoming, Ping and the new AppleTV is just pointing in this direction, at least for me.

Re: Apple announces iTunes 10 with Ping Social Network

#40
post #31

This is how Apple rolls and I must say I am impressed although it was expected. They have long been sitting on one of the strongest and certainly most profitable "social" networks. Now they have used it to do one of the most classical goals in business. Profit maximization. I don't even think this is something other companies can learn much from as most seem to be walking around like lemmings trying to incorporate fe…

You say it was expected, yet I heard no one predict it.

Well I can't speak for everyone, but I certainly did.

It was also known that apple where buying into this space. Will see if I can find the reference.

And I will make another prediction. Apple will have to take on Spotify once they reach momentum in the US (and I think they will with time)

In other words iTunes music is going to turn into a streaming music service at some point.

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