SK Hynix does produce some SSDs of their own, and they were the eventual owner of the SSD controller design firm Link A Media Devices. Their SSD products tend to fly under the radar compared to those of the other NAND manufacturers, but they've been at it for years.
How about Sandisk being partner with Toshiba in their foundry business ? I think WD just made the right move.
I am surprised that they did not launch already a killer 4TB mechanical drive with lots of cache. I wish I could buy a big drive with SSD inside. Best of both worlds. Capacity and Speed.
You forget Intel (the other half of IMFT), and as RaduR pointed out, Toshiba's NAND has been a joint venture between Toshiba and SanDisk/WDC since the very start.
SK Hynix is in a more interesting spot though, thanks to their complete lack of direct market share, though their Klevv brand may well change that on the consumer end. They could also just stay as they are and sell only raw NAND similar to how they handle their RAM business, though, so there is that too...
Those aren't important metrics, you can sell all the drives in the world but if your competitors have lower costs they can still run you into the ground with a price war. And that is what's happening with SSDs right now.
I am sure that the market will have exactly the same fate as mechanical drives. All producers will merge and only 2-3 names will survive.
Why ?
They are all dependent on nand production that is expensive thing to build. Eventually there will be most probably Intel/Samsung/Toshiba and maybe WD and Seagate if they are lucky enough.
Same story as TSMC / GloFo / Intel / Samsung manufacturing virtually all the chips in the world.
If they make one mistake it will easily become Intel/Samsung or Intel/TSMC .
SSD prices have been rising most of the last year.....So now, there isn't a current price war driving prices into the ground. Instead you have fake nand shortages as justification for jacking up the price. Go look at virtually any mid to high-end drive and look at what has happened to their prices.
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vladx - Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - link
Nice, hopefully with Sandisk gone others like Galax, Kingston, Corsair or Plextor will be enough competition for Samsung and Micron.Death666Angel - Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - link
What happened to Sandisk?Great_Scott - Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - link
Bought by WDC, but unless they develop a better product line they're in trouble too.Michael Bay - Thursday, December 22, 2016 - link
I`d argue that with WD and their foot in the door of corporate storage they just got OUT of trouble.Great_Scott - Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - link
Samsung, Micron/Crucial, and Toshiba are the only companies that matter AFAIK.SSD vendors that don't have an in-house Flash source are already dead, they just haven't stopped moving yet.
Kalessian - Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - link
What about SK hynix?Samus - Thursday, December 22, 2016 - link
What does hynix make other than ram and nand?Billy Tallis - Thursday, December 22, 2016 - link
SK Hynix does produce some SSDs of their own, and they were the eventual owner of the SSD controller design firm Link A Media Devices. Their SSD products tend to fly under the radar compared to those of the other NAND manufacturers, but they've been at it for years.RaduR - Thursday, December 22, 2016 - link
How about Sandisk being partner with Toshiba in their foundry business ?I think WD just made the right move.
I am surprised that they did not launch already a killer 4TB mechanical drive with lots of cache.
I wish I could buy a big drive with SSD inside. Best of both worlds. Capacity and Speed.
I am still stuck with 256 GB Msata drive :-)
ZeDestructor - Thursday, December 22, 2016 - link
You forget Intel (the other half of IMFT), and as RaduR pointed out, Toshiba's NAND has been a joint venture between Toshiba and SanDisk/WDC since the very start.SK Hynix is in a more interesting spot though, thanks to their complete lack of direct market share, though their Klevv brand may well change that on the consumer end. They could also just stay as they are and sell only raw NAND similar to how they handle their RAM business, though, so there is that too...
patrickjp93 - Thursday, December 22, 2016 - link
Even though WD is continuing the Sandisk brand and has produced more new products than Micron in the last year. Very logic, much wow...Flunk - Thursday, December 22, 2016 - link
Those aren't important metrics, you can sell all the drives in the world but if your competitors have lower costs they can still run you into the ground with a price war. And that is what's happening with SSDs right now.RaduR - Thursday, December 22, 2016 - link
I am sure that the market will have exactly the same fate as mechanical drives.All producers will merge and only 2-3 names will survive.
Why ?
They are all dependent on nand production that is expensive thing to build. Eventually there will be most probably Intel/Samsung/Toshiba and maybe WD and Seagate if they are lucky enough.
Same story as TSMC / GloFo / Intel / Samsung manufacturing virtually all the chips in the world.
If they make one mistake it will easily become Intel/Samsung or Intel/TSMC .
fanofanand - Thursday, December 22, 2016 - link
SSD prices have been rising most of the last year.....So now, there isn't a current price war driving prices into the ground. Instead you have fake nand shortages as justification for jacking up the price. Go look at virtually any mid to high-end drive and look at what has happened to their prices.