Okay Geek Farm
Netflix quietly scraps Qwikster idea and decides to just leave things as they are
Ricardo Trejo
Netflix’s blog read something like this today, “J/k, lol!!!” — or so that’s how we read it. Regardless, a new entry on the official blog explains that Qwikster will NOT be happening at all (whew!), and that Netflix will remain as it currently is — with DVD’s and streaming all coming from underneath one roof and offered to customers via one account.
Written personally by Netflix’s CEO, Reed Hastings, the post went on to backtrack on what was just announced but a few weeks ago:
“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.”
I’m assuming the decline in Netflix memberships and widely publicized disdain for the Qwikster idea was all Hastings needed to see to pull the plug on the new split/ joint venture.
Reactions from the price hike were bad enough as it could’ve gotten, and so Netflix apparently wanted to separate themselves from the problem by giving people the choice between the two — DVD’s and streaming. Only problem was, that’s not at all what customers wanted, seeing as they never got a choice to begin with.
Time will only tell whether Netflix will gain the favor of the masses once again.
