First Impressions: Ping

Have you tried Ping? After fiddling with the service for a couple of hours, I have concluded the following:

The business model seems to make sense: over 120,000,000 iOS devices sold and over 275 million iPods as well. That puts Apple in pretty good shape to manage it’s clout into a social network for music.

I can understand the mixed reactions from many US iTunes users of how Ping is going to be a “Facebook killer” or how Last.FM is still way better. As someone who lives in the Philippines, I don’t feel very much “connected” to the events on Ping. Unlike Facebook which is a venue for conversation, the goal of Ping is to connect you directly to the musician’s schedule allowing you to buy concert tickets and albums. So essentially the social network classifies you as a customer. When Apple finally rolls out a local PH version (and that means going through the brick wall laid down by record labels), that may be more enticing.

Apparently there’s really a reason why people specialize in social networking apps. Ping doesn’t seem to keep the look and feel of Apple’s usual elegance. It’s a bit confusing to browse at first, as I always end up back at the iTunes store, like I’m being compelled to buy an album off the digital rack. And my profile photo — more than 24 hours and it still is “being processed.” Apparently it’s the same for almost everyone — even the artists. Lady Gaga’s profile photo is still a default avatar. And I highly doubt that it’s her choice.

Well it’s only day 3.