A DVD-by-mail queue makes sense to me. What does "queue" mean in a streaming service, especially one where availability is frequently changing? In fact, DVD-by-mail and streaming services require and invite dramatically different management by the user.
I don't want a unified queue, because I don't want a queue for my streaming service. I can think of many ways in which I would want integration between my activity in each service, of which a unified queue is one of the least innovative and least helpful.
I have to believe that, even if Netflix/Qwikster can't provide useful integration, someone can. Despite my initial negative reaction to the split, these opportunities actually make me a little excited.
I think for a lot of people, myself included, a queue is simply a list of movies I'd like to see, in roughly the order I'd like to see them. Choosing a delivery method for the movie is a secondary thought, that right now is dead simple to do -- given availability information for the movie for each queue type, simply click the button for the available queue that best suits your needs. You also have the ability to see and play movies that become available to stream while sitting in your DVD queue, and can move a movie from your instant queue to DVD if you'd like. The two services blend well enough together to form a layer of abstraction, letting you use Netflix as a unified movie-finding-and-watching platform instead of just as a "DVD delivery service" or "Movie streaming service".
I believe that DVD will eventually die and streaming will be the primary way to watch movies, but the streaming selection just isn't there right now, and splitting the company like this forces customers to deal so heavily and directly with delivery methods that it dissolves that abstraction layer that made Netflix so valuable in the first place. They now have to sell potential future (and unhappy existing) subscribers on 2 new separate products: a "DVD delivery service" and a "movie streaming service", neither of which really measure up the the way the combined system did, and for the same price!
I don't want a unified queue, because I don't want a queue for my streaming service. I can think of many ways in which I would want integration between my activity in each service, of which a unified queue is one of the least innovative and least helpful.
I have to believe that, even if Netflix/Qwikster can't provide useful integration, someone can. Despite my initial negative reaction to the split, these opportunities actually make me a little excited.