Plextor, one of the most representative brands in the field of PC storage, once known for its high performance and high quality, announced that it will cease operations. Parent company Kioxia has decided to no longer use the Plextor brand on solid-state drives (SSDs). Instead, the company will sell products under the Solid State Storage Technology Corporation (SSSTC) brand going forward.
The move comes after Kioxia acquired the solid-state drive business of Plextor and its parent company Lite-On in 2019. Since then, Plextor has struggled to keep pace with new storage technologies. With the launch of PCIeGen4 and PCIeGen5 solid-state drive controllers, Plextor failed to adopt the new Phison and InnoGrit platforms, but insisted on using Marvell controllers that were already lagging behind at the time.
Now, SSSTC and Kioxia will focus SSD sales strictly on the enterprise, data center and industrial sectors, rather than the consumer market. Plextor's website has been moved to SSSTC.com and no longer lists any hard drives for customer computers.
While current Plextor SSD users will continue to receive warranty support and RMA services, no new Plextor products are expected to be launched. The company has a history of manufacturing top-performing optical drives and solid-state drives for more than 30 years. Similar to what happened after OCZ was acquired by Toshiba, the Plextor name will now fade out of history. But in the ever-changing storage industry, a company lives or dies by its ability to adopt cutting-edge technologies. Therefore, companies are always on tenterhooks in order to survive.