Computer giant Apple Inc. has recently launched a new version of its popular iTunes platform that would allow its users to tune in Ping automatically.
According to Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, they were able to develop a new technology by combining social networking features of Ping to the new iTunes 10 software.
“It’s like Twitter and Facebook meet iTunes. But it is not Facebook and it is not Twitter. It is something else that we have developed, which is all about music,” Jobs said, adding that the new iTunes software is now available to more than 160 million members worldwide.
Analysts said that the new iTunes 10 has now put Apple into the center of the social networking arena, but in a totally different level.
It is not about competing head on against Facebook and Twitter. The social networking feature of the new iTunes is something else. It is a hub when you want to hang out with your friends and talk about music, which is really cool.
But many analysts believe that the integration of Ping features into the new iTunes 10 could pose a direct threat to News Corp’s MySpace.com. It will be recalled that MySpace has reinvented itself into an online community for music fans after losing much of its social networking market to Facebook.
Meanwhile, Mark Mulligan, an analyst at Forrester said that the upgrades for the new iTunes fell short, but the entirely new approach to use Ping features put more value to it.
“iTunes could potentially open new business highways for the music industry. But I still believe that it needs more,” Mulligan said.
Apple Inc. released the new version of iTunes following the dramatic overhaul in its iPod models and second-generation Apple TV box, which became popular among users who are addicted to high definition video streaming online.
The new iPod models were released by apple following reports that Google Android-based gadgets are now taking some market shares away from Apple.
Meanwhile, Jobs said that the new Apple TV will be sold for $99 from $229 when it was first released in 2007.
Apple TV works by allowing users to stream and watch high-definition movies and television shows from the Internet to their TVS.
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