Late last month at we brought you news that Apple may finally kill off Ping, the failed music-based social network introduced in 2010 with iTunes 10. Speaking at AllThingsD’s D10 Conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that Ping had failed to capture customer attention, and that there was the possibility that Ping would be killed off in a future release of iTunes.

Well, now it looks like “future” may mean “fall.” According to a report from AllThingsD, the next major release of iTunes will no longer include Ping. That release – probably iTunes 11 – is expected to launch in the fall alongside the new iPhone and iOS 6.

The loss of Ping does not, of course, mean that Apple is removing itself from the social media space. Quite the opposite, in fact. After all, iOS has had OS-level Twitter integration since iOS 5 launched last fall. OS X is getting Twitter integration with Mountain Lion next month, and Facebook will be coming to iOS 6 (and probably OS X Mountain Lion) in the fall. Along with all that, Apple is bringing the ability to share apps via Twitter and Like them via Facebook to the App Store, and you can bet that before long you’ll be able to do the same with music and movies in the iTunes Store.

So Apple isn’t exiting social media, it’s just leaving social media to the social media companies while getting rid of its own spectacularly failed attempt to join them. Considering how few people used Ping, and how many use Twitter and Facebook, that’s certainly the right call.

[Image Credit: Original photo by Warrenski]