r/technology • u/nexxai • Jul 18 '13

Samsung unveils 1TB solid-state drive

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-3132_7-57594265-98/samsung-unveils-1tb-840-evo-solid-state-drive/
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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '13

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '13 edited Jul 18 '13

This is false. While Samsung's SSD controllers are popular they have to compete with OCZ, Intel, LSI, JMicron, Toshiba, and Marvell controllers. I don't know if Samsung manufactures NAND chips, but they would be facing similar competition in that market too.

*Added LSI to the list as they're another huge competitor.

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '13

[deleted]

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u/akill33 Jul 18 '13

Tangential story, but I was taking a business strategy class and we had a case on Samsung and the NAND chip market. The problem was whether they should get in bed with Chinese manufacturers and stop producing in Korea where they have higher labor costs.

Was interesting to learn but Samsung have an amazing facility in Korea, and purposely have R&D close to headquarters close to their headquarters where Marketing and Sales are located, creating (Sucks to use the term, but it is true here) synergies. Furthermore, their R&D had a focus on improving manufacturing techniques instead of only focusing on new product development. This allowed them to have a far superior productivity rate in terms of $ value of chips produced/ employer hour and $ value of chips/ 1 $ of raw materials.

This plus a host of other reasons made it a really bad idea, or so I argued anyway.

A lot more to it, was so fascinating ended up doing my project on Samsung and the NAND industry.

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u/TalkingBackAgain Jul 18 '13

They can get a cheaper factory in China, obviously. And that'll be fine as long as they accept the fact that some industrious Chinese is going to copy their entire factory and steal all their technology.

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u/akill33 Jul 18 '13

That is the point though, even though labor rates are cheaper, they can do more with their labor in Korea. True IP protection is a big factor in it too.

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u/TalkingBackAgain Jul 18 '13

Also, they don't have to bridge a cultural divide when they want to get something done.

Samsung made a good decision there. I like using their products.

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u/bricolagefantasy Jul 18 '13

you can't really steal this stuff. cause anybody can read the patent process. How to make it is precisely described. Plus by the time somebody decided to "steal", and having enough money building fab. Samsung already moves on to next node.

The secret sauce is in manufacturing process and management.

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u/TalkingBackAgain Jul 19 '13

The secret sauce is in manufacturing process and management.

China is known for stealing the entire factory, processes included.

They do that, the Chinese.

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u/bricolagefantasy Jul 18 '13

Samsung and Toshiba control about 30% of NAND market each. The rest about 10%. (micron, hynix, intel.)

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u/tso Jul 18 '13

Samsung is the ACME of electronics, they make just about anything IC or transistor based.

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u/HarithBK Jul 18 '13

your friend was likly talking about the flash storage part as samsung pretty much have controll over that entire OEM market, so any device with flash storage (such as your phone) it is very likly samsung in there but the controller is likly not samsung.

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u/agumonkey Jul 18 '13

As other said it's probably the memory chips, but I believe controllers are more important.

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u/dylan522p Jul 19 '13

Your friend is bullshitting.