Apple has launched their latest I-Tunes software, and along with the new I-Tunes software comes the first ever Social Network from Apple. The Network will integrate directly with the latest version of I-Tunes. The new Social network from Apple will be known as Ping. Ping will allow users to build a network of friends and musicians much like the methods used by Social networking site Twitter. Ping will allow users to build playlists based upon what their friends are currently listening to. The Ping service will be accessible to users of both Mac Computers and PC’s as well as on the I-Tunes application for the I-Phone and the I-Pod Touch.
There is no I in My Space
My Space was one of the original music based Social Networks to make it big Worldwide. My Space in fact prior to the popularity of Facebook had an amazing grasp on the Social networking market. My Space however has managed to dwindle in popularity over the years and now they will face some extremely difficult competition from Ping. Apple are never going to be an easy company to come in to competition with, so for companies like My Space they may need to evaluate what their future holds when pitted up against Ping.
Apple has become the popular wave of the future and this will make survival for many Social Networking sites slim. It will be interesting to see if My Space, Facebook, Twitter, etc will in fact have a hard time going up against Ping as it begins to gain in popularity. If marketed correctly Ping could quite comfortably insert them selves in the Social networking market and begin to weed out some of the current big names.
Room for One More
The question that anybody should ask before launching a Social Network site is if there is room in the flooded market place for another Social Network website. Ping however happens to land itself in a good position, when backed by Apple and packaged along with the I-Tunes software it is going to be hard for users to ignore Ping. The more time Ping has to develop itself and to offer up a combination of what all the other sites have to offer, then they very well could manage to demolish some of the current competition. This could also be a perfect opportunity for Apple to develop and discover new musical artists. If artists are able to have their own Social Network site attached to their I-Tunes then they will be able to easily market their music to a large audience. The independent music scene will strive from this, and then artists who are choosing to release their music online will in fact be able to sell their music to large amount of users that will turn their attention to Ping.
The benefits here both to the end user and to artists everywhere is that Ping will allow them to condense all their Social Networking tools in to one specific Social networking tool. There is great potential here to have Ping using the same features as Facebook, Twitter, and My Space all in one. This combined with the idea of making playlists, sharing with friends, and even sharing your favorite artists and playlists is going to be amazing.
Apple TV And Beyond
If you think Ping sounds like a great idea then you should be warned that early reviews have not exactly been favorable to the new Social Networking site. That being said the software is new and will take some time to develop much like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace all did.
If you have yet to hear about Apple TV then you might want to investigate and take a keen interest in it. Apple TV is the first step in the right direction for television and movies. Apple TV is a device that connects to your television and currently allows users to purchase and stream movies and shows on their television.
Apple TV however is taking things a few steps further as well. Apple TV is now going to allow users to rent TV shows and movies in HD now. The movies and shows will stream from your I-Tunes list on your computers and will also soon be able to wirelessly sync itself with your I-Pod, I-Pad, or I-Phone so that you can watch your movies or shows while you are away from your home.
This might sound too good to be true, but in reality this technology is nothing new, in fact Apple TV has been around since 2007 but it has yet to truly catch on. The more that people find that they do not want to go to the video store, or out to the movies may find themselves truly enjoying the new features and capabilities that will be coming along with Apple TV. This will also start to eliminate all those horrible brain washing commercials that you see when you subscribe to your regular television channels.
I know that technology can be scary for some, but I think once you have all had a chance to sit down and play with these products then you will start to appreciate just truly how amazing they can be. I wish I would have been able to come up with some of these products so that instead of blogging about them I would be presenting them to the world and then they would all look at me and say “Good Job Rob!”
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