Remember Google Plus? They tried but were ultimately found wanting.
Apple was focused on hardware. Their services play is only recent and my best guess is if they ever considered social, they rightfully saw how toxic it is and decided it wasn't worth the effort/risk of tarnishing their brand. Not that I think they'd have a compelling product. Personally, Apple's web products are average at best. See their stock apps.
Apple scraped that so quickly most never knew it existed. I think this shows a company that knows what it does well and has the discipline to stick to it.
Except they allowed Ping to get released in the first place. If they knew themselves so well, that idea would have been left to die on the vine rather than having X number of employees working on it at whatever expense.
Apple was focused on hardware. Their services play is only recent and my best guess is if they ever considered social, they rightfully saw how toxic it is and decided it wasn't worth the effort/risk of tarnishing their brand. Not that I think they'd have a compelling product. Personally, Apple's web products are average at best. See their stock apps.