Ping!

Apple's fall event had many surprises, yet none were as surprising as Ping.  Ping is part of iTunes 10 (along with the re-branding of iTunes).  Ping is Apple's entrance into the world of social networks, which is already doing better than Google's attempt Google Buzz.
Apple made a very strategic move by making it's famous iTunes software more social, because iTunes is such a popular piece of software.  Think about everyone who has an iPod, iPhone, iPad, or Mac?  The iOS devices alone are 120 million people, and that's without counting Mac users.  Theoretically this could be bigger than Facebook very quickly, considering Facebook has 100 million users, and as long as people update iTunes (which everyone will do eventually) than they will be notified and annoyed about Ping.  Perfect right?  Apple has redefined another market right?  No, it has not, because Ping still has many major problems.
Right now, there are barely any Ping users (which isn't saying much considering it just launched yesterday) but the whole point of a social networking service is to interact with your friends.  On Ping there are not enough friends to interact with to make it worth while.  There is another problem, and this problem is problem of massive size. The problem is Facebook.  Despite Facebook's recent privacy problems it is still number one social network for many reasons.
1.  Facebook already has so many people that it's logical to sign up for the social network service that already has all of your friends.
2.  Facebook is centered around being social, so that means that it has games that you can play with other people (Zynga and much more), Ways to share music you like with your friends just like Ping (iLike), and many more ways to interact with your friends via wall posts, pictures, places, ect.
3.  Facebook is based on the web instead of an application like Ping.
4. Facebook is accessible on any device which can access a browser while Ping is only available to iOS users and iTunes users which completely cuts off Linux Users.
5.  Facebook has many more features than it's competitors thanks to developers who develop applications for Facebook.
Here are 5 ways Ping might be able to fend off Facebook.
1.  Apple needs to spread awareness for Ping, and create more incentives for users to sign up for Ping.
2.  Apple needs re-evaluate their choice on focusing Ping on music, if they want to make it a Facebook Supplement (like iLike) than this is fine, however if they want to make it a Facebook Killer somethings need to be changed.  Note.  Apple had to take down Facebook Connect from Ping due to problems between Apple and Facebook, which means that as of now Ping cannot be a Facebook Supplement.
3.  Simple, Apple needs to move Ping to the web (at least) and it the rumors about Apple moving all of iTunes to the web are true than this isn't problem.
4.  See above.
5.  Apple already has a thriving developer ecosytem for iOS and with Game Center becoming iOS's "XBOX LIVE" there really is no logical reason why Apple would't eventually combine these two products to create a super social network product, with games, music, videos, ebooks, ect.

So do you think Apple has what it takes?  Well I do.