Netflix has a terrific product. Sadly, even with a terrific product you cannot rest for very long.

We gave Netflix a try about two years ago and it wasnt long before we stopped going to Blockbuster at all. The Netflix website is terrific and a good example of Web 2.0 technologies that provide a better customer experience. Our movies come so fast now (not much more than 24 hours), I find it hard to believe it is actually in the mail.

The real advantage of Netflix though is their website content. They know movies the way Amazon knows books. Netflix is a great place to research movies, read reviews, and browse. There is nothing like it.

But I am hoping Netflix is able to keep up with the compettion. Blockbuster is yesterday's competition. Direct downloads are finally starting to appear and I am afraid that little Netflix wont be able to compete with Apple and Amazon because of the need for licensing deals.

In business school, we did a team project on Netflix and some of my partners felt that Netflix was walking-dead because downloads were just around the corner. Personally, was more skeptical because I dont think downloads are a technical problem - the issues with downloading movies are legal.

The DRM debate is a huge morass and I havent heard of any good solutions yet. But Apple showed that they were big enough (and small enough) to wade through the swamp and actually ship a product that worked well. First with music and now they are starting with movies.

iTunes is great with music (I use Amazon for music research/buying and iTunes for music samples), but Netflix is still better for movies. I just hope Netflix is able to add downloads to their service and keep it that way.

Netflix's New Challenge: Downloads

by Andrew Simons

October 18, 2006

(Note: For some reason, this article was never published online so I cant quote anything from it.)