Netflix founder Reed Hastings issued an in-depth apology to netflix customers on the Netflix Blog yesterday. In it, he gave a detailed explanation of his decision to start charging additional fees for streaming vs. DVD delivery.

My initial reaction was, "good for you!" especially since he seems to be rescinding the "I'm going to charge you twice as much for the same service" message that had been previously announced.

But when I started reading the comments, I came to realize that his solution - to split the company in two (netflix for streaming and qwikster for DVD-delivery) doesn't solve the problem at all. Alert reader Jeremiah Cohick summed it up nicely when he said (paraphrased), "I don't care about your business model. As your customer, I don't think of you as DVDs vs. streaming. I think of you as the place I go to watch movies."

At the end of the day, THAT is what makes all the difference. And to have separate recommendations, queues and ratings makes NO sense - and is in no way integrated. I'm afraid that Netflix' slide is going to be faster than ever now.