Toshiba's SSD Announcement

[Abqpete]

Folks,

Looks like the SSD from Toshiba is not an Apple exclusive....

http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2010_11/pr0801.htm

Regards, Peter

 

[BENJMNS]

Folks,

Looks like the SSD from Toshiba is not an Apple exclusive....

http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2010_11/pr0801.htm

Regards, Peter

of course not

 

[DAMNiatx]

in the end, its all only apple marketing

hmm..

 

[fyrefly]

It'll just be neat if/when Toshiba makes their own 256GB drive available to regular consumers so they can upgrade their Air's (the 11" notably doesn't get a 256GB drive according to Apple).

 

[Adidas Addict]

I think other companies will be designing notebooks around these drives, as apple have.

 

[Thiol]

It'll just be neat if/when Toshiba makes their own 256GB drive available to regular consumers so they can upgrade their Air's (the 11" notably doesn't get a 256GB drive according to Apple).

Don't forget that the 256 GB drive is thicker than the smaller capacity drives and might not even fit in the 11" MBA...

 

[highscheme]

any MSRPs yet?

 

[KPOM]

in the end, its all only apple marketing

hmm..

True, but in this case Apple does seem to have gotten it a little bit before Toshiba released it to the retail market and other OEMs.

In the end, the main reason Apple switched to the Intel platform and toward industry standard components was to reduce costs by using the same components as everyone else. People buy Apple products because of their UI (including OS X and iOS), and because of their design.

 

[maflynn]

Why should Toshiba lock themselves into one company. Doesn't make sense. More customers = more profits.

 

[MikePA]

Why should Toshiba lock themselves into one company. Doesn't make sense. More customers = more profits.

It's not complicated. It depends on how much Apple, or any other company, would pay Toshiba for the exclusivity.

 

[KPOM]

It's not complicated. It depends on how much Apple, or any other company, would pay Toshiba for the exclusivity.

Given Apple's overall market share, it would likely be cost prohibitive for them to enter into an exclusive arrangement with Toshiba.

More likely Apple went to various SSD manufacturers and indicated what specifications they wanted, and once they decided to go with Toshiba made a bulk purchase commitment to get them shipped a few weeks before they became generally available.

 

[MikePA]

Given Apple's overall market share, it would likely be cost prohibitive for them to enter into an exclusive arrangement with Toshiba.

More likely Apple went to various SSD manufacturers and indicated what specifications they wanted, and once they decided to go with Toshiba made a bulk purchase commitment to get them shipped a few weeks before they became generally available.

I was answering the question, "Why should Toshiba lock themselves into one company?" not whether it would be a good or bad business decision. Only Apple and Toshiba would know for certain.

It's a business decision just as is Apple's decision to leave money on the table by not plastering all their laptops and desktops with the 'Intel Inside' stickers.

 

[KPOM]

It's a business decision just as is Apple's decision to leave money on the table by not plastering all their laptops and desktops with the 'Intel Inside' stickers.

I'm guessing that's a branding decision. Steve Jobs wants you to think "Apple" not "Intel" when you look at a Mac, and I don't think he wants stickers messing up the look of the system.

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

What kind of connector do these "sticks" have? In other words, if I wanted to shove one into another machine, is it just going to require a cable with the right connector or something proprietary?

 

[tigres]

I can't see these 256's coming in at a reasonable price point to compete with the CTO's from apple.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Why should Toshiba lock themselves into one company. Doesn't make sense. More customers = more profits.

I don't know if I agree. Put the Toshiba SSD in all notebooks sold by Apple and they'd likely find themselves quite profitable. Apple has already shown that they will sell tech well into the point where it is considered outdated in every other machine on the market (C2D).

 

[maflynn]

I don't know if I agree. Put the Toshiba SSD in all notebooks sold by Apple and they'd likely find themselves quite profitable.

Given the marketshare of apple (while growing), it makes more sense to go that route then try to manage some exclusive relationship.

I have no idea about the start up costs and R&D to develop this type of flash memory package, but I'm not quite sure that Toshiba could make a lot of profits selling exclusively to apple. Even if they could [make a profit], selling these to dell or HP would represent a large increase to Toshiba's bottom line.