At the end of 2023, Western Digital confirmed its plans to split into two companies. One of them would keep its name and focus on hard drives for the professional market. Especially in the models used in data centers and NAS. The other company would be called Sandisk and would be in charge of the company’s NAND Flash divisionwith among others, SSD storage drives. Like the units that Western Digital then sold to the consumer market.
From then until now, even months after the division between both companies became effective, changes in the product lines of the two companies have been continuous. Now it is the turn of the WD Blue and Black drives, two of the best-known ranges of SSD drives on the market. As confirmed by Sandisk, they are going to remove the two names and include their models in the Optimus range, the basic one for this type of company devices from now on, and intended for content creators and consumers.
Thus, from now on, WD Blue drives, such as the NVMe SN5100, will be sold as Sandisk Optimus. Meanwhile, the high-end WD Black ones, such as the NVMe SN7100 and SN8100, will carry the names Optimus GX (mid-range, for gaming) and Optimus GX Pro (high-end, for developers and professionals, as well as high-level gamers). The name change is unlikely to affect supplies, which could suffer further from global memory shortages and rising prices for NAND Flash and DRAM, which have skyrocketed in recent months.
For now, Sandisk has not made public its plans for the rest of its flash products whose brand name begins with WD, a good part of which still appear in its catalog. It is likely, however, that since Sandisk already has a brand equivalent of many of these products, they will let their brands die as their stocks run out. Meanwhile, the first units of the Optimus range are expected to begin arriving in stores throughout the first half of this year 2026.
Heidi Arkinstall, VP Global Consumer brand y Digital Marketing de Sandiskhas highlighted that «The Sandisk Optimus brand redefines what performance means for consumer needs. Our products cover several segments, and with this change we are making it easier for consumers to discover the right solution for their needs.«.
