Qwikster becomes Netflix DVD rental

[skynet]

And Netflix will be streaming only. They say they are doing this because of the eventual move from DVDs to streaming in the future. It feels like a distant future because the streaming side of Netflix has been lagging far behind in more ways than one, unless they have some massive immediate changes in their streaming plan as well which is possible.

Current problems with streaming:
1) Internet Providers fighting to regulate or cap bandwidth and then charge you more for extra. We don't know how ugly this may get in the future.
2) Current bandwidth is not that good in the first place because it seems you need to have a very fast and "quiet" internet to not get jumpy playback and buffer pauses. IPS technology in the U.S. is also lagging far behind other countries.
3) And most important: Where are the good movies? The streaming side of Netflix is 98% crap. Out of the thousands of streaming movies it is extremely hard to find anything worth watching, unless you like watching previously release crappy TV shows?
4) All you get is the movie, which is also starting to happen with DVDs since they are converting them to "rental" DVDs that don't include any extra content.

Future home of "Neflix" DVDs
http://qwikster.com/

Announcement video:


-----------------------------------------
Techcrunch: Netflix Splits DVD And Streaming Businesses
Slate: Netflix to Split Into Two Companies

[skynet]

The random foolishness continues. Now Netflix DVD will stay at Netflix. They finally dumped Quickster which, although kind of slow, was a good move. But then if they would've originally thought about it for another month or so, they probably would have avoided all the trouble and looking like they have no idea what they are doing. This keeps feeling like a couple desperate business execs running in circles from all the pressure of the competition. Even a non-business person with no experience would've been able to tell them to not ruin a good thing by throwing something stupid into the mix. Maybe next time they should first ask some people who have more common sense before making crucial decisions. Well, now it's feeling more like this whole Quickster sham was to make people forget about the price change, but then they go ahead and remind everyone in their email how they had to raise their fees (much higher). Then they say they are now finished with price changes. Does this mean they will never raise their prices much higher again? Who writes these emails? It reminds me of something I read somewhere... If you have an infinite number of monkeys typing on and infinite number of typewriters you will eventually have all the greatest literature ever written.

WSJ: Netflix Nixes Qwikster, Bowing to Complaints

Here's the email from Netflix:

"It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.

This means no change: one website, one account, one password…in other words, no Qwikster.

While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes.

We're constantly improving our streaming selection. We've recently added hundreds of movies from Paramount, Sony, Universal, Fox, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, MGM and Miramax. Plus, in the last couple of weeks alone, we've added over 3,500 TV episodes from ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, USA, E!, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, ABC Family, Discovery Channel, TLC, SyFy, A&E, History, and PBS.

We value you as a member, and we are committed to making Netflix the best place to get your movies & TV shows."