Chicago (IL) – So we have known for a while that iTunes 9 is pretty much ante portas, and daily rumors of the new version of the software is simply what you would expect at this stage. As far as we are concerned, you can rely on most of these rumors about as much as on a fortune cookie. But we have to admit that today’s tidbit is rather interesting: Apple is reportedly working on an application that would tie together all your social networking activities in one place.
Today’s news comes courtesy of Boy Genius Report, which quotes a source that claims that there will be some sort of social networking twist in the upcoming iTunes 9, which will be part of a “bigger social networking push by Apple.” Apparently, Apple plans to attach iTunes to a much more social application down the road, an application that would have the feel of Yahoo’s OneConnect.
If true, then Apple would not try to reinvent the wheel with another Twitter or Facebook, but try to pull all your social networking efforts together in one place. And, of course, there would be a strong connection to what iTunes does today and enable users to broadcast share their iTunes content. And what would a social application without status updates be? According to Boy Genius Report, “iTunes 9 will let you broadcast music statuses as well.” Fun.
We leave it up to you to speculate further and wonder whether this would be such a smart strategy for Apple. But it is somewhat apparent that Apple has been suspiciously absent from the current social networking world so far and that Mac users might appreciate their own social networking community. In that view, a social networking component for iTunes appears to be a question of time. And if you ask us, a much more social iTunes is probably a better investment than the rumored iPad, whose most exciting feature seems to be the integration of 3G connectivity.
In any way you look at it, iTunes 9 could become a milestone release for the application, as it will also be the first iTunes to support Blu-ray, which matches recent rumors that Blu-ray drives will be making their way to also upcoming iMacs.
Let’s see what tomorrow’s rumor will bring.
