Now Apple is officially friends with Facebook, iTunes Ping set for chop

Apple has decided to pull the plug on its iTunes Ping social networking experiment, according to reports.

The company annoyed the bejesus out of Facebook when it launched the service in September of 2010, beginning a period of frosty relations between the tech giants.

However, Ping, which encourages users to follow their favourite artists and keep track of what their pals are listening to and buying on iTunes, has failed to lure the massive customer base.

Now Apple is finally embracing Facebook with full integration in iOS 6, to sit alongside the baked-in Twitter functionality, it seems the company is happy to let the big two do the talking for them.

Gone in iTunes 11

AllThingsD reckons Ping, which currently exists within iTunes 10.6.3 and is a non-functioning feature within the iOS 6 Beta, will be gone when iTunes 11 and iOS 6 launch in full later this year.

During a recent interview at the site's D10 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook admitted that Ping had failed to connect with the public.

He said: "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.'"

That sounds like a man who, in this particular instance, is ready to admit defeat doesn't it?

Via: AllThingsD