Tim Cook talks of tighter social integration in Apple products
Yesterday, Apple CEO, Tim Cook, made a guest appearance at the All Things D Conference in California based, Rancho Palos Verdes. The discussion covered many topics of interest, but one that particularly stood out, involved the almost forgotten Apple attempt at creating a social network – namely Ping.
For those who don’t remember Ping – this is a music based social network, something maybe like Last.fm - Listen to free music with internet radio and the largest music catalogue online but not nearly as popular. Joana Stern of ABC brought up the issue of what has happened to Ping and asked Cook if he plans on pulling the plug on the project:
“Some customers love it, but there’s not a huge number that do, so will we kill it? I don’t know. I’ll look at it.”
The Apple boss certainly acknowledged the fact that Apple needs to be social, but this process has to happen following today’s standards, that’s why the company is looking into a tighter Twitter integration into the iOS and Mountain Lion. He also promised that in the future, users will surely be seeing more social products emerging from the Apple developing labs. Cook brought into discussion Game Center, saying that this facility can be considered as being a piece of the puzzle of Apple’s social master plan.
What’s interesting is that at this moment, Tim Cook doesn’t see Apple developing its intrinsic social network as a necessity. The company already tried its hands at that with Ping and users voted, so there’s actually no good reason to invest time and energy into something similar anymore. From now on, Apple will go on the path of trying to create a community revolving around communication rather than just around picture sharing.
By Radu
Source: Apple CEO Tim Cook promises more social integration
