Apple claims one million Ping users

Ping is available in iTunes 10

Apple has announced that one million people signed up to its Ping social networking service in the first 48 hours.

Ping went live last week as a feature in iTunes 10, as part of an announcement covering updates to Apple's iPod Shuffle, Nano and Touch lines.

"One-third of the people who have downloaded iTunes 10 have joined Ping," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of internet services.

"As many more people download iTunes 10 in the coming weeks, we expect the Ping community to continue growing."

However, the service was dogged by reports of widespread spam attacks after a failure by Apple to block fraudulent messages.

Apple also seems to have alienated a large proportion of its iTunes users. Despite the fanfare launch, the company's help forum is full of people complaining that they have not been offered the service.

Users from Chile, Canada, Kuwait, the Dominican Republic and India are complaining of problems, despite already having downloaded iTunes 10.

Apple has said that the Ping service is "only available in countries where there is currently an iTunes Store available which sells music".

Later this week, Apple is set to roll out the iOS 4.1 software update for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The update was announced at the same event as Ping, and will increase the possible user base by bringing the social networking app to Apple handsets.

Apple's UK web pages now show the iOS 4.1 release as 'coming soon'. Over the weekend the date was shown as 8 September.