It has been less than a month since Netflix decided to spin-off their DVD business into a sister company called Qwikster, and it seems they are having second thoughts. Today Netflix announced that they will abandon their plans for Qwikster. When asked about the decision a representative for Netflix responded with, “We underestimated the appeal of the single website and a single service. We greatly underestimated it.”
Did I just hear that right? You underestimated it? Seriously? How does this even happen? It baffles me how a decision like this even sounds logical. For someone who was named Fortune Magazine’s 2010 Business Person of the Year, Reed Hastings really dropped the ball on this one. But then again, you can’t blame this on the actions of just one individual. It came down to probably a dozen or more people all nodding their heads in unison (insert Facepalm here).
It was estimated that Netflix would lose over 1 million users due to the increase in pricing and launching Qwikster. Though the numbers won’t be released until Oct 24th, it looks as if that figure will be surpassed. I can’t speak for everyone, but I doubt I will return to renting from Netflix. I just don’t need to see John Candy flicks that bad.
Mashable referred to Qwikster, as, “The worst product launch since New Coke” and I have to agree. Although, for my generation, Crystal Pepsi might be a more fitting analogy.
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