Micron's Subsidiary Crucial Starts Selling Hard Drives

Crucial is one of key brands for Micron Technology. Selling Solid State Cache (SSC), Solid State Drives (SSD) as well as system memory to numerous consumers and companies, Crucial is one of leading brands. Up until recently, the only products Crucial would sell were their own branded products, powered by Micron's memory chips and controllers.

Earlier today, we received a press release from Crucial stating that the company is starting to sell hard drives (HDD). Given that Micron doesn't manufacture hard drives we went up to the website and saw that Crucial/Micron now sells Western Digital and Seagate products. While the selection is very limited (24 products), it is telling that those products are probably the only ones Crucial/Micron believes it can enjoy a profit margin, leaving other models to the existing distribution channel.

Alternatively, it might be just a trial balloon to see if the market would come and visit Crucial.com for expanded product line-up. While we do not believe Crucial.com will ever become a diverse etailer, it is still a telling tale of tough life in the solid state storage business.