Bleumangue

Netflix & Microsoft Move On; Blockbuster Still Stuck in the '80's

Your suggestions may make sense in a mathematical way but they seriously don't understand the "shopping experience". Somewhere in your schooling you must have heard about the importance of owernership of the object for sale. Color, smell, touch the pretty DVD box. I've rented on-line and from video stores. The 2 experiences are not comparable. It's not only about the DVD. It's about having a shopping experience with the other humans in the store. Watch the shopping experience on HSN or QVC. They vicariously suck in all your senses. They do it so you can feel that you did. Netflix business model is based on the belief that we consumers exist to cocoon; having all our needs supplied by forces outside a habitat from which we will never, or minimaly, venture out. That's what Blockbuster is not selling; and I'm not buying.