LiteOn to start selling consumer SSDs

[HEXUS]

Making use of a Silicon motion controller and SK hynix flash.

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[GuidoLS]

They make relatively decent optical drives and other oem replacement parts. Considering that history, that initial price point isn't anything all that special, and might be considered (for the company) to be a bit high.

Still worth keeping an eye on.

[OilSheikh]

This is a strange one. They never made hard drives or RAM in the past. Hmmm... wonder if Pioneer will make SSD's next

[MrRockliffe]

The SSD market is very competitive at the moment and it seems like an odd move for a company that, as above, hasn't made anything similar before to start now. The only way they'd be able to distinguish themselves from the top dogs such as crucial, Samsung Kingston among others is to keep prices really low. That in itself would be a tough job, because I doubt their margins for profit wouldn't be very big anyway, as they'll have to buy most of the components in as it is.

[cheesemp]

Makes sense to me. Liteon love to sell components such as DVD drives to big manufacturers like Dell, Lenovo etc. An SSD can be viewed in the same way. They are a lot simpler to design and assemble than a HDD (HDD is very mechanical and custom - Custom Platters, controllers, heads etc vs an off the shelf controller and flash). They will probably be looking to discount high for big bulk purchasing OEMs so having a high initial price makes sense. (Also helps that Dell etc won't state the manufacturer of the SSD in the specs...)

[unospace]

Interesting indeed. I've had a few LiteOn DVD drives over the years but have settled back to Pioneer now. I love my Samsung SSD's.. Worth a go maybe these are depending on the price and warranty offered.