Netflix drops DVD Queue from mobile devices, iPhone users revolt

In a rare PR blunder, Netflix today announced on its blog that it's removing the “Add to DVD Queue” feature from streaming devices. Translation: You won't be able to spontaneously add titles to your DVD queue from your iPhone, iPad, Blu-Ray play, PS3, etc.

Assuming that you still have a DVD queue*, that is.

The worst part of this turkey is listening to Netflix's poor Jamie Odell try to spin it into a positive:

We’re doing this so we can concentrate on offering you the titles that are available to watch instantly. Further, providing the option to add a DVD to your Queue from a streaming device complicates the instant watching experience and ties up resources that are better used to improve the overall streaming functionality.

Then it directs users to Netflix.com

Wait, what?

It complicates things for who? My grandmother?

And I'm not buying that it ties up resources part either. Does that mean the resources required to send a text file of your queue back and forth to the server? Or the resources to maintain that part of the software? I don't get it.

Why doesn't Netflix simply filter by login? DVD subscribers get the option to add to their DVD queue, streaming-only subscribers don't. The thing the rubs me the wrong way about this is that the software exists currently and (seemed at least) to work just fine. Heck, there's a bunch of queue management apps on the App Store that do the trick. Maybe Netflix doesn't want to maintain the code and just wants to leave it open to developers?

Help me here, people.

*The move doesn't impact me because I switched to Netflix's streaming-only plan when it was announced last November. But I can certainly understand why comments about the sudden about-face are pretty darned negative.

I'll excuse it if Netflix would just add more titles to its streaming catalog already! Trying to find something to watch is like wandering through a barron wasteland of gems like Once a Jolly Swagman and The Parking Lot Movie.

Update: If you haven't already, bookmark the Netflix Instant Watch tracker. It provides a searchable front-end to Netflix's 29,828 Instant Watch titles. It's like walking the new release aisle at Blockbuster. Remember that?

Image courtesy of FOX Broadcasting Company