price

Netflix price hike stirs subscriber ire (roundup)

The DVD rental and movie-streaming company changes its pricing structure, prompting an uproar among its legion of users.

Netflix now tone-deaf on public perceptionBig Why not spell out the reasons for the price increase instead of cheering a potential $1 billion payday? Public-relations experts say there's a better way to deliver bad news to subscribers. (Posted in Media Maverick by Greg Sandoval) • Wal-Mart takes another crack at challenging Netflix • What HBO Go can teach Netflix (and vice versa) • Netflix to offer Facebook integration (outside U.S.) • 'Mad Men' makes its way to Netflix streaming … Read more

Study: Prices of top iPhone games keep dropping

As mobile application stores continue to grow in size, pricing among the most popular paid games software is going down, a new study has found.

In a new report by market research firm Distimo covering activity on various mobile app stores during the month of June, the group found that pricing among the top 300 apps in Apple's App Store has dropped 28 percent from averages taken the same time a year ago.

During the month of June last year, Distimo tracked the average price among the top 300 paid games in the App Store at $2.01, with … Read more

Netflix now tone-deaf on public perception

Reed Hastings sure can't be accused of sugarcoating anything.

Yesterday, the Netflix CEO and his company made a few more statements about a planned price increase that has many customers accusing the company of greed and threatening to quit the service.

After Netflix announced the increase on July 12, some had predicted that the blistering customer response would force managers to recognize it had erred and re-evaluate its decision. On the contrary, in the most recent statements, the company sounded full of confidence and even cheerful about the financial benefits the price increase would offer Netflix.

Whether or not Netflix has good reason to raise prices, the company has demonstrated that it doesn't know how to deliver bad news. Two weeks ago, Netflix left it to a little-known manager to announce prices were going up in a blog post. Netflix informed customers that starting in September it would do away with a popular $10-per-month subscription plan that offered DVD rentals as well as unlimited access to the company's streaming-video library. Subscribers will have to pay for streaming and DVDs separately and each costs $7.99 per month, or $15.98 per month for both.

The message was a "a disaster," says Howard Belk, co-CEO and chief creative officer at Siegel + Gale, which advises companies on their brand strategies and customer experience. "The tone was wrong, the quantity of information was too little, and it came out of left field. The message didn't reflect any value to their customer base." … Read more

Netflix 'hates' upsetting customers, but most won't cancel

Netflix said today that it "hates" upsetting customers by raising prices as much as 60 percent and acknowledged that the customer backlash to the rate hike would likely stifle growth and hurt earnings in the short term.

But in the long run, Netflix expects the price hike to yield some important benefits and may help the company hit a key benchmark: generate $1 billion in revenue during a single quarter. No doubt, many Netflix subscribers won't be impressed with that figure since some of that money will be coming out of their pockets. For people who hoped Netflix would reverse its decision on the price increase, the company's remarks suggest that isn't going to happen. … Read more

Don't call Netflix's CEO 'Greed' Hastings just yet

For those Netflix customers who may be thinking about dumping their subscription in September when the company plans to raise rates as much as 60 percent, here's one more thing to consider: to determine where the company is headed, it might help to look at its past.

CEO Reed Hastings has a long, if imperfect, record of serving customers, which no one else renting movies online can match. For a decade, Netflix has created technologies and features that have continuously provided customers with more and more savings and convenience when it comes to renting movies. How can we forget … Read more

Nokia's uphill battle to recovery

Expectations for Nokia's second-quarter earnings couldn't be any lower. But what about the future?

The Finnish company, which is still the No. 1 cell phone manufacturer in the world in terms of volume, has been struggling to keep up with competitors Apple and Google. The company reports its second-quarter earnings tomorrow.

In an effort to jump-start its ailing smartphone business the company announced in February that it will ditch its traditional Symbian operating system for Microsoft's Windows Phone platform. But the transition from Symbian to Windows Phone is proving to be a difficult one. Nokia isn't … Read more

How long can Sprint keep its unlimited plans up?

Sprint Nextel's unlimited data plan will eventually face its limits.

As the only carrier that can now boast of offering an all-you-can-eat buffet of data with no strings attached, Sprint has become a haven for bandwidth hogs. It's a boon to customer growth and gives the company a competitive edge beyond pricing or network quality. Unfortunately, it's also tough for the company to reverse its position.

The growth also comes at a cost. The more heavy users jump on the Sprint ship, the heavier the burden the carrier will start to feel. The company has employed tricks … Read more

Will Netflix reverse price hike? Outlook not good

Some Netflix customers are holding out hope that the Web's No. 1 rental service, will reverse a decision to raise prices, according to a CNET poll. Comments made last night by Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey, however, didn't sound encouraging.

"These are our prices," Swasey said when asked whether Netflix might change its mind or reduce the amount of the price increase.

An unknown number of Netflix subscribers have taken to the Web to bash the company for doing away with a hybrid price that covered the rental of streaming video and discs. Customers who used to … Read more

Five ways Netflix still needs to improve itself

While everyone's been in an uproar about Netflix pricing, few are discussing Netflix itself--and what's still broken about it. Netflix needs its pricing model problems fixed, but Netflix also could use some improvements to how its service works, too--particularly on mobile devices.

Related links • How Netflix could get out of its pricing mess • Social media backlash over Netflix pricing • Netflix alternatives

As a service, Netflix is at a crossroads. Is it streaming? Is it a DVD delivery service? Is it best as both? For myself, even though I subscribe to the DVD/streaming combo plan, I find myself rarely playing the DVDs I order. They sit on a shelf and collect dust. That's because I'm not a big living-room TV watcher: I cut the cable cord over a year and a half ago, and prefer to use my iPad, iPhone, or laptop to easily stream video. So, to me, Netflix is a streaming-video service.

Therefore, let me address Netflix's faults on those terms: as a streaming-video entertainment service. While we're venting our frustrations over paying more for what Netflix offers, there's no better time to cast an eye on what still doesn't work well on Netflix to begin with. Fix what's broken with Netflix, and maybe, if the service improves, it just might be worth a higher subscription price after all.… Read more