14 DAY TRIAL // It is becoming increasingly obvious that Ping, Apple’s idea of social networking based on musical taste, is not something many of the company’s faithful users were dying to see implemented in iTunes. In fact, one could say that Apple’s ability to predict what customers want before even they know what they want just hit a roadblock.
(Although users also have complaints in other departments with the new iTunes 10, we'll focus on their issues with Ping for now).
With the release of iTunes 10, Apple introduced Ping with much fanfare, touting it as a great way to follow your favorite artists and friends to discover the music they’re talking about, listening to, and downloading. In short, a social network for music.
Two days after the introduction of PIng, the Cupertino-based company announced that the service had garnered over one million users, but many remain skeptical that registering with Ping just to see what it’s all about doesn’t translate into a “user”.
In fact, many of the people using iTunes on a regular basis couldn’t care less about this new addition, according to the thousands of comments and forum posts around the Internet, including Apple’s very own Discussions board.
On the official Apple forums, many are lamenting that a recent incremental update to iTunes 10 has replaced the Genius sidebar with a Ping sidebar, in what looks like an attempt on behalf of the company to push the service onto those who haven’t been enlightened yet.
To be clear about one thing, Genius is still a feature in iTunes, but it’s not as easy to access in the latest version of iTunes.
A person identified as "academiasalad" is not particularly upset about the move, as he calmly shares with the rest of the forum users that he just got the Genius sidebar back by downgrading iTunes.
“I dont mind playing with Ping, willing to give it a few more months, but I really love the Genius sidebar. I'm downgrading to 10.0.0,” he writes.
User "purrdee", on the other hand, is a bit more angry. He urges Apple, “Please please please turn back on the genius sidebar.”
“Ping is about as useful as a chocolate teaspoon as most of the music I buy is old classic rock where the bands have long ago disbanded,” the Apple customer argues.
Softpedia note: Of course, Apple uses the likes of Lady GaGa to promote the service, making it clear what types the company is aiming at with this service.
“Genius may have had its critics but i found it useful in finding similar music or tracks i had not already bought […] What i find really annoying is Apple's habit of just pulling features without consultation with the users,” he adds.
In fact, many suggest that Genius is quite possibly the most useful feature iTunes has added in a very long time.
"CVMax" writes: “I can't believe they took the Genius side bar away...I do need instructions on how to downgrade to iTunes 10, if somebody can help, please.”
“I hope Apple staff is reading this and other threads regarding the removal of Genius,” he adds, in a separate post.
“I used that feature very often to browse related music, and purchased many songs off this service.”
He takes a few lines from Apple's promo text on Ping, in which the Mac maker notes some of the benefits: "Follow your favorite artists with a click and become part of their inner circle. Find out what music an artist likes and pick up a few recommendations."
But to CVMax, and many others like him, this new ability is not at all impressive, and certainly not at the cost of having the Genius bar removed.
“I could honestly care less what some worshiped celebrity thinks is interesting,” the upset customer outlines.
“For the many people who are ‘in to’ social networking, there are just as many who are not,” he estimates.
“I understand Apple desires inclusion of this feature, but why do so at the expense of a very useful one? Apple, please give us the option to choose to use the Genius sidebar!”, CVMax’s urging post ends.
It doesn’t stop here.
A person going by the screen name of “Alf A'Lot” actually aims to demonstrate that Apple is possibly losing cash by prioritizing the new feature in the iTunes application.
“What an odd choice to disable a utility that encouraged me to listen to and buy music I don't have, and replace it with something that simply has me reading stuff about the people who make the music I already do have, assuming the artist is participating in Apple's facebook wanna-be program,” his detailed post reads.
He thanks fellow posters for providing the proper instructions to downgrade back to an older version of the software, adding “[I] will definitely make sure I carefully read the features on any future updates before deciding to download!”
Your move, Apple!
iTunes users are encouraged to share their thoughts with us in on this topic.
