# Micron Discontinuing Lexar Removable Storage Retail Business



## Canon Rumors Guy (Jun 27, 2017)

```
Well, here’s a bit of a shocking story. It looks like the Lexar brand of memory cards, USB flash drives and storage drives is <a href="https://www.micron.com/about/blogs/2017/june/micron-discontinuing-lexar-removable-storage-retail-business">being discontinued by parent company Micron</a>. I personally use Lexar cards for all my cameras, but I guess it’s time to move on to SanDisk, the biggest brand in the world.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://petapixel.com/2017/06/27/r-p-lexar-memory-cards/">According to PetaPixel</a>:</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>We’re hearing that huge business from other revenue streams had made Lexar’s consumer-facing business relatively insignificant.</p>
<p>“Apparently Amazon and Google have been buying so much flash memory from them that there is no need for push for the retail side of things,” one industry retail source tells PetaPixel.</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>From Micron</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>Micron Technology today announced that it is discontinuing its Lexar® retail removable media storage business. The decision was made as part of the company’s ongoing efforts to focus on its increasing opportunities in higher value markets and channels.</p>
<p>The Lexar portfolio includes memory cards, USB flash drives, readers, and storage drives for retail and OEM customers.</p>
<p>Micron is exploring opportunities to sell all or part of the Lexar business.</p>
<p>The company will continue to provide support to existing customers through this transition period. Customers should contact their Lexar sales representative to discuss specific requirements.</p>
<p>I’d like to thank our team members and partners for their contributions to the Lexar business. As difficult as this decision is, the company is making this adjustment in its business to ensure it continues to be well-positioned for the future.</p></blockquote>
<p>If you can’t stand the thought of not buying Lexar memory cards anymore, <a href="https://bhpho.to/2rYxOQQ">B&H Photo still has a ton of them in stock</a>.</p>
<span id="pty_trigger"></span>
<div style="font-size:0px;height:0px;line-height:0px;margin:0;padding:0;clear:both"></div>
```


----------



## H. Jones (Jun 27, 2017)

Whoa, that was unexpected. Almost every photographer I know has at least one Lexar card, if not all of their cards. I personally use SanDisk, but I've always used Lexar card readers and have been eyeing their Workflow Hub recently. Plus, competition is badly needed considering the prices of CFast cards! 

Hope that someone picks them up and continues selling their products.


----------



## Khalai (Jun 27, 2017)

H. Jones said:


> Whoa, that was unexpected. Almost every photographer I know has at least one Lexar card, if not all of their cards. I personally use SanDisk, but I've always used Lexar card readers and have been eyeing their Workflow Hub recently. Plus, competition is badly needed considering the prices of CFast cards!
> 
> Hope that someone picks them up and continues selling their products.



I hope they will. I have a mixture of SanDisk and Lexar SD cards as well. And Lexar card-readers are amazing to boot.


----------



## neuroanatomist (Jun 27, 2017)

H. Jones said:


> Hope that someone picks them up and continues selling their products.



Bummer, even though I use SanDisk.

Still, it's a very well-reputed brand...seems likely that someone will buy it. The question is, will that someone buy the production, or just the label...and even if the former, will the quality be maintained?


----------



## jdramirez (Jun 27, 2017)

My concern would be someonewould buy the name... But not the manufacturing standards. Honestly... As this last batch runs out... I'd wait a few years to buy another lexar branded memory card until we see if the standards are upheld. 




H. Jones said:


> Whoa, that was unexpected. Almost every photographer I know has at least one Lexar card, if not all of their cards. I personally use SanDisk, but I've always used Lexar card readers and have been eyeing their Workflow Hub recently. Plus, competition is badly needed considering the prices of CFast cards!
> 
> Hope that someone picks them up and continues selling their products.


----------



## jdramirez (Jun 27, 2017)

Same line of thinking... I hate that line about great minds thinking alike because it is so demonstrably false...



neuroanatomist said:


> H. Jones said:
> 
> 
> > Hope that someone picks them up and continues selling their products.
> ...


----------



## jolyonralph (Jun 27, 2017)

Another Lexar card and card-reader user here, but I'm not particularly brand loyal and will buy SanDisk, Transcend or whatever else happens to fit the right performance/capacity/price ratio at the time.


----------



## foo (Jun 27, 2017)

neuroanatomist said:


> Still, it's a very well-reputed brand...seems likely that someone will buy it. The question is, will that someone buy the production, or just the label...and even if the former, will the quality be maintained?



Micron makes the flash devices inside the Lexar cards as well - doesn't sound like they're selling off their nand-flash business, just the Lexar brand. So seems unlikely that the brand will ever be the same again. 

Best you can hope for is that another company who also makes both the chips and the cards buys the brand, but that's probably going to mean either Samsung - or Sandisk... Not sure either of them need to.


----------



## tron (Jun 27, 2017)

I use Sandisk cards but I always thought of Lexar cards as viable alternatives. Shame.


----------



## AvTvM (Jun 27, 2017)

totally irrelevant, what label is printed on memory cards. As long as they perform well, are reliable and not costly .. i don't care.


----------



## tron (Jun 27, 2017)

AvTvM said:


> totally irrelevant, what label is printed on memory cards. As long as they perform well, *are reliable* and not costly .. i don't care.


I agree but all these assuming you know the labels of the cards that are reliable...


----------



## bsbeamer (Jun 27, 2017)

This is a real bummer. The Lexar 1066x CF cards are fantastic cards and much better cost per GB than some other manufacturers. Love the Lexar CF/SD dual slot card readers. Will have to keep an eye on upcoming sales and likely pickup some closeout stock. (Also a Sandisk user, but mostly for SD/SDXC.)


----------



## mdmphoto (Jun 27, 2017)

...bought my first Lexar cards on the recommendation of a pro friend who swore by them, but also because they were on sale, or course. They supplanted my sandisk cards: I actually use both, but when all things are otherwise equal, I go with the Lexars. Over the years I've had a few failures with sandisk cards wherein the data couldn't be read without some effort at research and trickery, albeit infrequently; but I've never had that problem (Knock-Knock) with my Lexars, - even when an SD was physically damaged around the contacts.


----------



## cpreston (Jun 27, 2017)

I see this as a problem for competition in the market. I viewed Lexar and Sandisk as the two primary reliable brands. When looking for approved media, those were the only two brands that seemed to show up for cameras and recorders. Sometimes you would see a Transcend card. Maybe Transcend will take up the slack, but it's a pretty big loss for competition for Sandisk and it could have an effect on the downward pressure on prices.


----------



## AvTvM (Jun 27, 2017)

never used Lexar. Always Sandisk. No failure with CF or SD/Micro-SD cards ever.


----------



## Luds34 (Jun 27, 2017)

I mostly have SanDisk cards but do have some of the Lexar 1000x UHS-II Sd cards and they have been great. This is how naive I am, I didn't even know Lexar was essentially micron. Micron makes a good product and it sounds like business is booming and it's just easier for them to simplify. Too bad, just hope we don't see a small bump in prices from the other quality brand.


----------



## slclick (Jun 27, 2017)

Jobs in Utah disappearing as well? https://www.micron.com/about/locations/USA/Lehi


----------



## IglooEater (Jun 27, 2017)

Hmmm I actually use SanDisk, but I hate to see them hold the monopoly on reputable memory cards. We will almost certainly see price bumps at SanDisk...


----------



## goldenhusky (Jun 28, 2017)

Thanks CR admin. Sad to see Micron' decision on this. I see so many variety of Lexar cards are already marked as discontinued at b&h. Just ordered twin pack CF and SD cards. For some reason I am not a fan of Sandisk. Except a few Transcends (mostly I don't use them because they are older and slower) I use pretty much Lexar exclusively. I hope micron will reverse this decision in future if not I will sadly miss Lexar cards for ever.


----------



## Orangutan (Jun 28, 2017)

AvTvM said:


> never used Lexar. Always Sandisk. No failure with CF or SD/Micro-SD cards ever.



Never used Lexar. Always Transcend. No failure with CF or SD/Micro-SD cards ever.


----------



## mahdi_mak2000 (Jun 28, 2017)

I always think of lexar as premium brand mostly for professionals.

not sure why they did it, I believe it was profitable.


----------



## deleteme (Jun 28, 2017)

While I don't wish Lexar ill, I would observe that they and SanDisk are the only brands that have failed multiple times for me.
Lexar has fed me three bum cards and SanDisk two.
Every other brand I have used has not failed.

They made me think that the premium paid for their cards was directed to their marketing to convince me of their excellence rather than actually ensuring their QC.


----------



## pwp (Jun 28, 2017)

Harry Hindsight told me just three days ago to buy Sandisk stocks. 

Sandisk will be laughing all the way to the bank over this. Like many others, I have a mix of high spec Lexar and Sandisk CF & SD cards. All photographers have benefited from the Lexar/Sandisk competition. We may see slower development and creeping prices now. 

A market shakeup like this creates great opportunities for the smaller players. If the Lexar brand is sold, you'd want to wait a few years to check out the new owners QC credentials. 

-pw


----------



## AvTvM (Jun 28, 2017)

i dont see negative effects for *Canon* customers. sandisk will not be sole supplier. fully expect samsung to use this opportunity and push their flash card business.

only xqd cards seem to currently come as lexar or sony only ... so people will now be at the mercy of sony ... hehe, hi-end Nikonians.

CFast cards however are available from sandisk, transcend, adata and other labels as well, so no problem for hi-end Canon users. 

unless samsung and/or adata or transcend enter xqd market, this could well mean its over for xqd format. 

personally i have made sure to avoid xqd as much as sony memory stick cards in the old days ... i do hope for total standardization on micro-sd.. card format. UHS III is plenty fast, if camera makers are to funally support it in their products.


----------



## CropFactor (Jun 28, 2017)

pwp said:


> Harry Hindsight told me just three days ago to buy Sandisk stocks.
> 
> Sandisk will be laughing all the way to the bank over this. Like many others, I have a mix of high spec Lexar and Sandisk CF & SD cards. All photographers have benefited from the Lexar/Sandisk competition. We may see slower development and creeping prices now.
> 
> ...



SanDisk is owned by Western Digital. I won't be surprised if WD acquire Lexar and run it as a competing brand, same as what WD did when they acquired HGST.


----------



## Luds34 (Jun 28, 2017)

AvTvM said:


> i dont see negative effects for *Canon* customers. sandisk will not be sole supplier. fully expect samsung to use this opportunity and push their flash card business.



Are Samsung cards any good? Do they make full size SD cards? In a pinch recently I grabbed a 32 gig Samsung Evo Select micro SD card. It's U1 speed rated. The marketing even says, "fast enough for burst speed photography" and it can record 1080p video, has an 80 M/s icon. But I found it performing like a dog in one of my Fuji's. The write time was very slow. I'd fire a shot, and hit play to view the file and at times the delay was quite long.


----------



## tron (Jun 28, 2017)

Luds34 said:


> AvTvM said:
> 
> 
> > i dont see negative effects for *Canon* customers. sandisk will not be sole supplier. fully expect samsung to use this opportunity and push their flash card business.
> ...


I got a samsung pro+ sd card to get write speed close to sandisk extreme pro. I guess all other card types from samsung will be slower... I do not know how much slower but you should do some searching (there are for example evo plus cards)


----------



## magarity (Jun 28, 2017)

I used to use Sandisk products until their own update to my MP3 player bricked it and they wanted more than it cost originally to fix it.
Samsung makes excellent chips and their flash drives from SSD to SD are all top shelf.


----------



## mnclayshooter (Jun 28, 2017)

And with the general tone of respondents on this thread, it's not hard to see why they are shuttering/selling it off. 


Virtually every comment on this thread says "I use Sandisk, but I think Lexar is good". Sandisk is getting the money, Lexar is getting some strong atta-boys. 


Lol. I have no axe to bear, I just thought it was funny this morning reading this.


----------



## AvTvM (Jun 28, 2017)

for a long time Lexar prices were quite a bit higher than Sandisk (not to even mention Transcend and other brands). I guess - since I dont have numbers - Lexar has/had a good share with "Pro's", but not with "amateurs/enthusiasts" and even less so with price-sensitive "consumers". 

More recently, Lexar products looked to be priced more competitively. But the "premium price" impression probably lasted in many potential buyers minds ...


----------



## Luds34 (Jun 28, 2017)

magarity said:


> I used to use Sandisk products until their own update to my MP3 player bricked it and they wanted more than it cost originally to fix it.
> Samsung makes excellent chips and their flash drives from SSD to SD are all top shelf.



Their SSDs seem to perform pretty solid. Sometimes I think that is more the controller then the memory itself and my understanding is Samsung does their own controllers and they are top notch. Their wear level seems to be pretty awesome (especially on their pro SSDs) but I think most SSDs today will long outlast normal desktop usage.

I'm not sold on their SD cards. Besides this card performing slowly, below it's rating, I've also had a Samsung card just fail on me recently as well. It was a 64 gig card in a tablet doing little more then storing some movies and music and it went kaputt on me. I replaced it with a Sandisk.


----------



## LDS (Jun 28, 2017)

CropFactor said:


> SanDisk is owned by Western Digital. I won't be surprised if WD acquire Lexar and run it as a competing brand, same as what WD did when they acquired HGST.



That was only because of trade regulators rules: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/19/mofcom_says_yes_wd_hgst_merger/

WD is already trying to buy Toshiba chip business, I can't see it going after Lexar when it already own SanDisk.

Anyway my reason to buy Lexar was it was a Micron brand, and Micron is one of leaders in this kind of products. If it just becomes a brand slapped on memory chips you don't know where they come from, I see very little value.


----------



## csista (Jul 2, 2017)

That's a shame. I'm practically exclusive to Lexar. Nothing against Sandisk, just that Lexar was always as reliable, but usually priced cheaper. Hopefully there's at least a big blowout sale before the end. If I can get a 256GB 1066x in each slot of my second 5d4 to match the first, I won't have to worry about new cards for a long time.


----------



## Dylan777 (Jul 3, 2017)

Wow...this is sad news.

All my cards are Lexar. :'(


----------



## ethanz (Jul 3, 2017)

Should I assume if a 64gb Lexar CF card is back ordered at BH that it won't come at all?


----------



## tron (Jul 3, 2017)

Dylan777 said:


> Wow...this is sad news.
> 
> All my cards are Lexar. :'(


I am sure your cards will continue to work great (but I understand that you wrote this mainly because you were a satisfied Lexar customer and wished to continue being one...)


----------

