Sony Shuts Down Nearly Its Entire Memory Card Business Due to SSD Shortage

[-]

EmuIllustrious8200@reddit

io ho comprato una scheda sony che è morta dopo die mesi di utlilizzo.... direi che hanno fatto bene

[-]

G8M8N8@reddit

“temporarily suspend” is different than shut down.

You are the death of journalism.

[-]

KR4T0S@reddit

Generally machinery shut down is turned off and can be turned back on when conditions stabilise. They aren't getting out of the business here, the plan is to resume when things improve.

[-]

DesperateAdvantage76@reddit

They mean that the business is not shutting down, they aren't talking about the machines.

[-]

KR4T0S@reddit

Considering the rate at which bad things up piling up I wouldn't hold my breath but eventually things should rebound.

[-]

f00dl3@reddit

Inflation never reversed after COVID.

I doubt things will ever improve. They will just get fucked slower.

i.e. 8 TB NVMEs will never be under $1200 again.

[-]

nittanyofthings@reddit

People always claim deflation is bad.

[-]

It is bad. If you are in deflation your economy is going to blow up because all corporate debt just became impossible to service. A small, stable inflation is the idea scenario (economists want it under 2%)

[-]

GoblinEngineer@reddit

Inflation did reverse though - it was 2.6% in 2025, down from 8% in 2022

[-]

Balavadan@reddit

I think they meant the prices didn’t go down. Inflation is just measured year to year so we would need negative numbers to go back to pre COVID. That never happens and current economic models don’t want it either

[-]

ThankGodImBipolar@reddit

NAND and DRAM are both commodities; they go through boom and bust cycles.

[-]

SlippyFist_68@reddit

DDR5 comes down in price just as COVID-20 spreads

[-]

jmorlin@reddit

Does no one seriously remember how volatile NAND flash and RAM prices are historically speaking? Yes they are a bit atypically high now, but it's kinda crazy to think at some point it won't stabilize for one reason or another.

[-]

Intrepid_Lecture@reddit

I mean in some ways it's "bad" right now but $200 still gets you "enough" RAM for most basic tasks.

Then again I spent less than $200 for 16GB RAM back in 2013.

[-]

Techhead7890@reddit

Agreed - I think some people are really dooming the situation a bit. Unless this somehow jinxes us into an Invasion of Taiwan, touch wood, and even then there's still capacity in Korea, I think we have a while to go until the apocalypse.

As you said, sometimes businesses cycle up and down for various reasons or another. It's a particularly bad one now - but we should not pretend that civilisation is coming to its immediate end and rapture lol

[-]

onolide@reddit

Unless this somehow jinxes us into an Invasion of Taiwan

TSMC doesn't manufacture NAND flash and DRAM lol, and all 3 of the main RAM/NAND companies have their own fabs(and are not Taiwanese companies). An invasion of Taiwan would hurt semiconductor manufacturing, but NAND/DRAM would be largely unaffected.

[-]

Aw3som3Guy@reddit

If anything, wouldn’t the reduction in computing capacity from the loss of TSMC actually work to ease the demand of NAND / DRAM? Like, if basically every device that uses HBM at the moment is manufactured with a TSMC node, then the loss of TSMC would practically crater the demand for HBM until non-TSMC designs actually get made?

[-]

onolide@reddit

Maybe, maybe not. While not suited to development or professional workflows, gaming GPUs and consumer DRAM/NAND can still be used in servers and enterprise, so it depends if companies will adapt by snatching consumer hardware instead.

[-]

Balavadan@reddit

The problem is the reason why the price is higher now. Even governments are invested in these AI companies. It’s really hard to see a case where they’re allowed to just burn all the cash and then shut down

[-]

jmorlin@reddit

Do you think supply and demand are fixed constraints? That AI is a bubble that may never burst? That NAND flash and RAM manufacturers won't at some point be able to increase production?

[-]

ZorbaTHut@reddit

If AI is here to stay, then we'll create more hardware production capability.

[-]

JackIsBackWithCrack@reddit

Believe it or not the world isn’t ending

[-]

Tobimacoss@reddit

Plus they will likely need to restart again for their PS6 Handheld, they could sell PS branded micro SD cards.

[-]

Techhead7890@reddit

Yeah true - but when I read "company/team/division shuts down" in the business sense, I usually think of "closed for good" not furloughed. It's somewhere in the middle really.

[-]

pellets@reddit

Shut downs don’t necessarily mean permanent. “Temporary shut down” is perfectly fine. Of all the headlines to criticize, this not worth the attention.

[-]

Area51_Spurs@reddit

Sony Shuts Down Nearly Its Entire Memory Card Business Due to SSD Shortage

Where does it say “temporary?”

[-]

pellets@reddit

Maybe like when you shut down your computer, does that mean you never turn it back on?

[-]

gahlo@reddit

When you shut down your computer do people get lose their jobs?

[-]

pellets@reddit

That’s absolutely different topic. Since that’s the kind of debate you want to have, I’m not going to continue this discussion.

[-]

gahlo@reddit

Welcome to your mirror.

[-]

crysisnotaverted@reddit

If it isn't outright apparent, it's heavily implied.

Micron shut down Crucial, and I don't think they'll be back any time soon.

[-]

Throwawayeconboi@reddit

If I shut down my computer, is it never going to be possible to turn it on?

[-]

G8M8N8@reddit

"Local coffee shop shuts down...

...will reopen tomorrow at 7:00"

[-]

Throwawayeconboi@reddit

And what if there is no reopen date? :)

[-]

waxwayne@reddit

It died years ago.

[-]

RealGazelle@reddit

We should put OP in brazen bull 🗣🗣

[-]

No_Aside_7118@reddit

if you have memory chip idle inventory and want to sell now is the perfect timing. We are recycling a large amount of memory chips, all kinds.

[-]

RockinVideo@reddit

Sony has hurt us.... well not sure how responsible Sony is for this, since I'm sure that Sony is being involuntarily unable to have the production due to the AI. Beginning not to like AI at all.

[-]

reallynotnick@reddit

I didn’t even realize Sony still made memory cards to be honest.

[-]

Ard-War@reddit

To be fair their product aren't exactly catering to mainstream users, with them being priced like 5x the next best offer or something. But boy do they actually physically tough and do what it says on the package, and practically last forever (assuming it survived the left side of the bathtub curve)

[-]

Reasonable-Physics81@reddit

I have an memorycard thats over tens years old, still works. Had heavy use on about 8 phones and several cameras. Just confirming.

[-]

Y0tsuya@reddit

I got some Sony Tough series SDXC cards. It does cost a premium over others but it's more like 1.5x, not 5x. It's also very nice.

[-]

JavChz@reddit

Plus they are fast, if you're recording RAW 8K it's one of the few providers out there.

[-]

Next-Use6943@reddit

The 2TB one with NVMe speeds looks great

[-]

orion427@reddit

Yeah these are for pro photographers and semi pro video people. I had one of these in my A7RIV doing high bit rate 4k and it would hardly hit the buffer. Worth the money if this is your job.

[-]

OCD-but-dumb@reddit

the fact compact flash is what survived is surprising honestly. RIP weird proprietary storage

[-]

reallynotnick@reddit

UFS cards still sort of exist (though SDexpress will likely take over it). Not sure if there are any other weird cards out there being actively used or if CF and SD are the sole survivors and their newer “express” versions.

[-]

Blaze9@reddit

The sony Tough cards are literally the best in class. Hella expensive but if you're doing professional work and need the extremely high writes, nothings better.

[-]

Y0tsuya@reddit

The Tough SF-M SDXD is only 1.5x price premium over other wimpy cards. For what it offers, I'm alright with the price premium.

[-]

AlliRmbrIsDrtSkyDrt@reddit

And they're not even hella expensive now (relatively). A sandisk 128gb V60 card is £112 on Amazon. ProGrade is £93. Sony Tough SF-M is £73 from Sony.

[-]

Blaze9@reddit

Oh dang. I haven't bought new ones in years, they're also super high endurance clearly lol.

[-]

AlliRmbrIsDrtSkyDrt@reddit

I ordered another one a few weeks ago so that's reassuring!

[-]

notam00se@reddit

Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Panasonic, etc use Cf.B memory cards for most of their cameras

Sony uses Cf.A.

Not as shitty as Sony Memory stick proprietary crap from 20 years ago, but you get locked into their ecosystem.

[-]

kuddlesworth9419@reddit

Thankfully I made sure I got the version of my camera that had an SD card slot because there was no way I was going to pay CfExpress card prices with no benefits over SD card.

[-]

FatalCakeIncident@reddit

Oh man, that was a terrible decision. CF Express B is just 2230 NVME in an adapter, and you can buy the adapters separately for just a few $, source your own NVME, and use premium nand with your camera for a fraction of what you'd pay with a prefab cf exp B or professional-class SD.

[-]

kuddlesworth9419@reddit

SD cards are fast enough for what I use my Z6ii for. Will do burst fire for ages and does video perfectly fine as well. So I genuinely don't see any benefit to having CFexpress or a faster format.

[-]

StarbeamII@reddit

The speed becomes necessary once you shoot higher bit depth video and especially if you shoot RAW vide

[-]

kuddlesworth9419@reddit

Yea probably although I shoot in RAW on my Z6 without any frame drops or anything. My SD card is just a SanDisk 280MB/s write speed. Which is almost as fast as a SATA SSD so I doubt it would actually be a problem.

[-]

StrategyEven3974@reddit

CF Express B is used by every high-end cinema camera and Mirrorless camera. It's not just Sony. Canon, Sony, RED, Arri, Nikon, Fujifilm all use it. It's hardly "locked in" proprietary.

[-]

FatalCakeIncident@reddit

Lol, pot calling the kettle black there, sillybuns.

[-]

StrategyEven3974@reddit

I own three Canon C80s, a Canon C400, two R5mk2's and two Black Magic Ursa's.

[-]

FatalCakeIncident@reddit

Good for you. Would you like now to Google what a 2230 is and what the adapter looks like, and revise your silly comment about having dongles sticking out of cameras?

[-]

NAG3LT@reddit

Some of the fastest CFE cards are actually using SLC flash to guarantee sustained fast write speeds. They aren't more expensive for no reason.

[-]

Wintersc@reddit

CF express cards don't exist for the sake of it. Many applications require the improved speed.

[-]

NAG3LT@reddit

Also, the fastest SD cards are currently UHS-II which support only up to 300 MB/s and yet cost more than larger CFE-A and CFE-B cards that are also 3x - 8x faster.

[-]

StrategyEven3974@reddit

CF Express B is used by every high-end cinema camera and Mirrorless camera. It's not just Sony. Canon, Sony, RED, Arri, Nikon, Fujifilm all use it. It's hardly "locked in" to just the Sony ecosystem. If you use Type B you're "locked in" to being a professional.

[-]

Zubba776@reddit

Do you not understand there is a difference between CF Express type A, and type B? Sony (in typical Sony fashion) very much pulled the d bag move utilizing type A when nobody else is; their excuse is that it allows for a more compact space at the tradeoff of some top end speed and heat dissipation.

[-]

notam00se@reddit

Cf.A is basically Sony exclusive and locked in to Sony only.

Cf.B is everything else prosumer

Cf.A and Cf.B are different physically and signal-wise and are not swappable. Cf.B cannot be used in Sony. Cf.A cannot be used in anything else but Sony

Hope that clears it up.

[-]

AdventurousTime@reddit

True. Plus more and more cameras support support writing directly to an SSD. Even the iPhone requires recording to an external ssd in some pro res applications.

[-]

Delicious_Rub_6795@reddit

I was recently looking for some new cards because I've had several brands alwaya fail in the same way (plastic cracking, card failing to read) and their TOUGH cards were one of the few solutions on the market. Definitely filling a niche despite the price

[-]

NeoIsJohnWick@reddit

I do have 2 usb drives. So yeah they been in this since long.

[-]

Bderken@reddit

I use Sony cards for my Sony camera. They’re the ones I trust for 4k/8k video and to last a longggg time.

[-]

SGTSHOOTnMISS@reddit

I figured they'd keep it alive as long as they made cameras and camcorders.

[-]

voxadam@reddit

What are we going to do without our supply of Sony 256 MB Memory Stick PRO Duos?

[-]

ClickClick_Boom@reddit

The 1GB Pro Duo was such unobtainium when I was a kid, mine came with a 32MB card and I couldn't afford the bigger ones. I had a choice between larger memory stick or games, and I'd rather have the games.

[-]

BigAlgae5684@reddit

I was in the same boat.

One day I got a game (cant remember which) that wouldn't work with the 32mb unless I deleted saves from other games. I had spent the last of my birthday money on a game I couldn't play. Had to wait til Summer came (5 months) to get a job. Spent $110 on 256mb...

Was incredibly frustrating to spend that much but once I realized I had 8x the storage for boob pictures I was okay with my purchase as a 15 year old.

[-]

ClickClick_Boom@reddit

Spent $110 on 256mb

Is that how much they were? I was trying to remember, I seem to recall the 1GB was closer to $150 but I also got into the PSP when the first revision came out, so it was maybe cheaper by then.

[-]