Apple might ditch Ping and do a deal with Facebook, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Discussing Ping, Apple’s attempt at a social network Cook said: “We tried Ping and the customer voted and said, this isn’t something I want to put a lot of energy into. 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.”
He added: “Apple doesn’t have to own a social network. But does Apple need to be social? Yes. But the ways that we express that today are integrating Twitter into iOS, and you’ll see us integrate Twitter into Mac OS with Mountain Lion. Some people think of iMessage as social. You’ll see more things along that in the future. Game Center is a social activity. And so things like this make our devices even more useful to people. But that doesn’t mean that Apple needs to own a social network.”
Speaking at the D10 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook told Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg: “I think the [Apple-Facebook] relationship is very solid. We have great respect for them. I think we can do more with them. And so, just stay tuned on this one.”
Cook noted: “They have their own way of doing things. But people can say that about us as well. But just because you have different views doesn’t mean you can’t work together.”
The next version of iOS may bring better Facebook integration. Apple already offers a way to Tweet snippets of information straight from the iPad and iPhone operating system. Cook’s revelation could hint that such integration is to come in iOS 6.
“We want to provide customers simple, elegant ways to do the things they want to do. And Facebook has hundreds of millions of customers. And anyone with iPhone or iPad wants to have the best experience with Facebook on any device. So stay tuned,” he said.
