More words – more speed
The rebranding logic is simple but effective. Now the SSD status is determined by the number of words in the name. The humble “SanDisk Optimus” (two words) is a WD Blue repaint for the common man. We add the magic letters “GX”, we get “SanDisk Optimus GX” (three words) – this is the previous WD Black for gamers. And finally, the pinnacle of engineering – “SanDisk Optimus GX Pro” (four words!). This is for the elite, for those with PCIe 5.0 and those who look at PCIe 4.0 owners with a slight sense of superiority.
The most interesting thing is that inside almost nothing has changed. It’s like they repackaged a chocolate bar in a shiny wrapper with “Protein Energy” written on it. Same model number, same features. The main achievement was that marketers were finally able to explain the difference between the mid-range and high-end WD Black simply by adding the tagline “Pro.”
What will happen in the sales market? Chaos and excitement.
The company chose the perfect time to rebrand. While SanDisk is busy editing game titles, the world is in a memory crisis. SSD prices are skyrocketing due to insatiable demand from AI data centers, which are buying up every chip available. Competitors are now in decline, and Micron just abandoned its Crucial consumer brand and left the scene. SanDisk decided to play its own game and is now not releasing revolutionary products but putting new labels on old SSDs.
So, buying new memory will soon become a buyer's task, because the WD Black SN8100 and SanDisk Optimus GX Pro 8100 will be next to each other. And only the most knowledgeable people realize they are twins. Of course, this will only benefit retailers.
On the other hand, the clear division into “just optimus”, “GX gamers” and “GX Pro professionals” is an attempt to create a more understandable universe than the “rainbow” from WD. If marketers are successful, perhaps an audience will appear among buyers who value not high-tech filling but a clear boundary. Their main trump card now is not technological breakthrough but clarity.
What will happen to WD Green and Red? Most likely, they will also be silently “optimized” or left behind as a relic of a bygone era for some niche task.
Perhaps SanDisk has decided that in a market panicked by prices and shortages, the best strategy is not to reinvent the wheel but simply to give it a neat repaint and come up with a new big name. Will this work? In the short term yes, until buyers figure it out. In the long run – only if the beautiful “Optimus” label is accompanied by real product development and not just graphic design on the packaging.
