Nice Goin’ Netflix

On Tuesday of this week, in an attempt to out-Apple Apple, Netflix announced that they are offering a $99 set-top box with the uninspired-but-functional name of “The Netflix Player”. The device, manufactured by Roku, is similar to AppleTV in that it hooks to your television and allows you to download movies and TV shows from the internet (in this case, only from Netflix) to watch instantly. The 2 things that make this different from Apple TV are:

1. No fees to download, everything is included in your Netflix subscription costs, and
2. The super-affordable $99 hardware

A lifelong Mac evangelist, it’s not easy to get me to say anything negative about Apple… but this deal blows them out of the water. First, $99 for the hardware is not a barrier to me, whereas I’d think more carefully about shelling out the $229-$329 for the AppleTV device (in fact I have thought carefully about it…for months….and I still haven’t been able to commit). Also, not having to pay for the content (above your normal subscription fee, which you’re already paying) just sweetens the deal. If you want to watch anything using Apple’s device, you have to pay for each download at the iTunes store.

Undoubtedly part of Netflix’ strategy was also to keep their customers loyal – it’s a lot harder to defect to Blockbuster when you’ve just made an investment (of any amount) in an actual piece of hardware. Genius, Netflix…. well, played.

So, I just put in my order this afternoon. I’m usually pretty reluctant to adopt this early in the game but what the hell, it was my birthday last week and this is my cheap little gift to myself. Well, cheaper than the ipod touch I was going to get…. and it’s not like Netflix is some random stranger in a back alley. Flixy and I have had a good relationship for years… and I’m confident she won’t let me down. I will let you know how it goes.

Tagged as: Apple, Netflix, Roku