Netflix Apology

[Cold Assassin]

Got this is my email today. Wondering what your thoughts are on it...

[And it states]

Dear D... err Anonymous,

 I messed up.  I owe you an explanation.

                 It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many  members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the  separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes.  That was  certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology.   Let me  explain what we are doing.

        For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been  that we wouldn't make the leap from success in DVDs to success in  streaming.   Most companies that are great at something – like AOL  dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people  want (streaming for us).  So we moved quickly into streaming, but I  should have personally given you a full explanation of why we are  splitting the services and thereby increasing prices.  It wouldn't have  changed the price increase, but it would have been the right thing to  do.

            So here is what we are doing and why.

                Many members love our DVD service, as I do, because nearly every  movie ever made is published on DVD.  DVD is a great option for those  who want the huge and comprehensive selection of movies.

                     I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into  my TV, and I can watch anytime I want.  The benefits of our streaming  service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail.  We  need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the  market evolves, without maintaining compatibility with our DVD by mail  service.

                     So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are really  becoming two different businesses, with very different cost structures,  that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and  operate independently.

          It's hard to write this after over 10 years of mailing DVDs with  pride, but we think it is necessary:  In a few weeks, we will rename  our DVD by mail service to "Qwikster".  We chose the name Qwikster  because it refers to quick delivery.  We will keep the name "Netflix"  for streaming.

        Qwikster will be the same website and DVD service that everyone  is used to.  It is just a new name, and DVD members will go to qwikster.com  to access their DVD queues and choose movies.  One improvement we will  make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our  upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox  360 games.    Members have been asking for video games for many years,  but now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it  done.  Other improvements will follow.  A negative of the renaming and  separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be  integrated.

        There are no pricing changes (we're done with that!).  If you  subscribe to both services you will have two entries on your credit card  statement, one for Qwikster and one for Netflix.  The total will be the  same as your current charges.  We will let you know in a few weeks when  the Qwikster.com website is up and ready.

        For me the Netflix red envelope has always been a source of joy.   The new envelope is still that lovely red, but now it will have a  Qwikster logo.   I know that logo will grow on me over time, but still,  it is hard.  I imagine it will be similar for many of you.

        I want to acknowledge and thank you for sticking with us, and to  apologize again to those members, both current and former, who felt we  treated them thoughtlessly.

       Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work hard to regain your  trust.  We know it will not be overnight.  Actions speak louder than  words.  But words help people to understand actions.

 Respectfully yours,

 -Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO, Netflix

 p.s. I have a slightly longer explanation along with a video posted on our blog, where you can also post comments.

[static2601]

I'm still waiting for Netflix streaming to come to the Android system. They said last year that they plan on an app to be available sometime at the beginning of the year, and now it's damn near next year and nothing. I haven't resigned up since I've been waiting for this. Oh well.

[Cold Assassin]

I already have it!

[static2601]

I already have it!

Wait, what? *checking market* Ah i see it was finally released, but when? I stopped caring after awhile. I might sign up again now

[DragonMasterNYC]

Wait, what? *checking market* Ah i see it was finally released, but when? I stopped caring after awhile. i might resign up now

A while ago.

Well at least it's gonna stay the same price. I'm thinking of buying into Netflix, but I want to get a video input for my PC ahead of time.