As it usually happens with any new product, Netflix’s Roku, announced on Tuesday, brought about both positive and negative opinions. While some still prefer Apple TV, others were willing to give it a try and they appear to be rather satisfied with it.  

The $99 Netflix Player gives customers access to more than 10,000 movies and TV series. With the help of Instant Queue, Netflix subscribers should find it easy to browse through the titles. As Roku's vice president of consumer products, Tim Twerdahl said, the Netflix Player represents the first stage of Roku's plan to implement its "Internet to the TV strategy," that will eventually win the competition with the "walled garden" approach, found with Apple TV and Vudu systems.

Once customers subscribe to any Netflix plan of $8.99 or more, they are ready to stream as much content as they want. According to Netflix officials, subscribers can pause and rewind streaming titles.

The two aces up Netflix’s sleeve are simplicity and low costs. The latter should play an important role in getting people to at least see what the new product is about. Roku’s set-top is being made available for the fairly attractive price of $99.

The set-top was first unveiled at the beginning of 2008, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.