retail

The retail SSD market has all but disappeared. And it is not because users have stopped buying them

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Buying an SSD seemed, until not so long ago, one of those fairly simple decisions in the PC world: choose capacity, look at speeds, compare prices and little else. But the market behind this daily gesture has changed significantly. What we have seen in recent months is not a disappearance of the need for storage, but a much deeper strain on the supply chain. SSDs are still necessary, but an increasing share of drives that could previously end up in the channel retail seems to be finding other destinations before reaching the retail window. what’s happening. The clearest signal was put on the table by Nelson Duann, vice president of Silicon Motion, one of the major manufacturers of SSD controllers. In an interview with Tom’s Hardware during Computex 2026the executive summarized his reading of the market like this: “The retail SSD market has practically disappeared.” He was not talking about a specific drop or a minor adjustment, but rather about what happened during the first half of 2026, a period in which retail sales of SSDs fell significantly. The chain has moved. The key point is who is buying those units now. Duann explained that the controllers sold by silicon motion to module assemblers, that is, companies that integrate memory, controllers and other components to sell complete SSDs, largely end up in units destined for PC manufacturers. It’s not a minor detail: according to that reading, manufacturers like Acer, Asus, Dell or HP can’t get enough NAND or SSD supply directly from the big memory manufacturers, so they are turning to a channel that previously looked much more towards the end user. The pressure of AI. The background appears clearly in TrendForce data. According to the consulting firm, cloud service providers increased demand for enterprise SSDs in the first quarter of 2026 due to the need to build infrastructure for AI servers, with high-speed data transmission and enormous storage capacities. Added to that was another factor: the structural shortage of traditional hard drives pushed a significant portion of orders toward QLC enterprise SSDs. There are figures. TrendForce says the combined revenue of the world’s five largest NAND Flash vendors grew 83.7% quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter of 2026 to exceed $38.9 billion. The increase came in a scenario of strong demand and limited supply, with average sales prices above expectations. The distribution also shows the scale of the phenomenon: Samsung closed the quarter with 13.51 billion dollars, SK hynix Group reached about 7.53 billion and Kioxia reached 5.96 billion. The indirect winnerss. The hit to the retail storefront does not mean that the entire chain is losing at the same rate. Duann added that, in the past, most of these companies were focused on selling to the end user, but since the end of last year and through 2026 that dynamic has changed. Demand from PC manufacturers has strengthened and those suppliers are directing a significant portion of their production directly to them. For companies like Silicon Motion, which sell SSD controllers to these assemblers, the market continues to move, although it does so through another door. What the buyer notices. This industrial readjustment ends up reaching the user in a fairly direct way. As we have seen, the prices of consumer SSDs have increased significantly in recent quarters due to the priority that memory manufacturers are giving to the AI ​​sector. That is to say, the pressure does not stay in the data centers, it also filters down to the shop window and the computer that we end up buying. everything remains the same. TrendForce indicates that large NAND Flash suppliers will add virtually no new capacity during the year and that, due to AI-related demand, supply shortages will remain. Production will also continue to be heavily focused on server storage applications, with high-capacity QLC enterprise SSDs gaining penetration. In this context, the retail market is conditioned by an industrial priority that does not aim to change immediately. In summary. The retail SSD market has weakened not because the user no longer needs fast storage, but because the industry has changed its order of priorities. Available NAND is being disputed between data centers, large buyers in the PC industry and companies trying to respond to increasingly server-oriented demand. What once came more naturally to the showcase is now more likely to end up integrated into a new team or AI infrastructure. The SSD is still there, but the usual buyer is no longer first in line. Images | Western Digital + Photoshop In Xataka | SSD prices are so crazy that a 2TB drive for the PS5 costs more than the PS5 itself

Decathlon has just bought Intersport in Spain. And with this, a business model closes: multi-brand sports retail.

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Decathlon has notified the CNMC the acquisition of Intersport CCS in Spain. The operation would add some 120 stores (30 owned and 90 franchised) to the 176 stores that Decathlon already operates in the country. Now the regulator You have one month to make a statement in first phase. Why is it important. This purchase closes one business model and consolidates another: Intersport represented the retail traditional sports: multi-brand, with Nike, Adidas, Puma and company on its shelves. Decathlon is the opposite: the own brand (Van Rysel, Quechua, Kiprun…) is what dominates, with mainly low prices, or at least lower than those of the big brands, and total control of the value chain. The first has gone bankrupt and the second keeps its locations. The background. Intersport entered bankruptcy in March 2025 with a debt of between 14 and 30 million euros. Tried to get 70% cuts with banks like BBVA and Sabadell, and with suppliers like Nike and Puma, but it didn’t work. In November, Intersport France bought the business for 300,000 euros and now it is Decathlon who takes it entirely. Between the lines. The battle of retail sports is no longer so much about what brands you sell as about how many square meters you control and what you sell within. The big sports brands have opted for direct sales to the consumer (Nike closing distributors, for example, although he got a frog). Intersport was trapped selling brands that no longer needed it to reach the customer, without great differentiation of its own and with very high inventory costs. Nike and Asics are not Kalenji and Artengo. Yes, but. Decathlon buys Intersport largely because it buys key locations before they are occupied by Amazon, Shein (which is about to physically disembark in Europe) or any other e-commerce actor that needs a physical presence at least to facilitate returns and collections. In it retail 2026, the physical store continues to be differential, but only if you sell products that cannot be easily purchased online. A Van Rysel cycling set is not on Amazon. Some Nikes, yes. The contrast. This is not very different from what happens in the food sector: Mercadona dominates because it sells its few own brands and controls the chain. Multi-brand supermarkets (those that only distribute) are in a more complicated position. He retail sports follows the same pattern: consolidate or die. Stores without their own identity tend to disappear. And now what. If the CNMC approves the operation, Decathlon will reinforce its hegemony in Spain. But the news is not so much the number of stores as the model that remains standing. In 2026, those who control what they produce, how they sell it, and where they distribute it survive survive. The rest is noise. In Xataka | Wallapop taught us how to sell used things. Decathlon has learned to make money with it Featured image | Decathlon, Intersport

Revolution is doing in the bank the same as Netflix in entertainment or Amazon in retail: conquer from the margins

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That Revolution sets a 2.25% payroll account It is not news. The news is that it has taken so long to do so. This is the time when The so -called “Neobancos” complete their metamorphosis: from rebel alternative to direct competitorof complementary bet to total substitute. Traditional banking has been watching Revolution for years and company as irritating digital mosquitoes. Annoying, but not lethal. “They lack regulatory muscle,” they said. “They cannot give mortgages,” they argued. “People want branches,” they self -convent. Evil Timing. Meanwhile, 4.5 million Spaniards already have Revolution. The third largest population in Europe for Fintech. It only remains to close the circle: Mortgages on the wayNetwork of ATMs announced and now, finally, the payroll account. This is not a tactical movement, it is strategic. The Neobancos have followed a calculated trajectory: first international transfers (the weakest point of traditional banking), then the basic accounts, then the investments, and now the heart of the banking business. Until They accept Bizum and Friends of the Treasury have become. The rest will also come. They have applied The classic disruption manual: enter through the margins and move towards the nucleusfirst occupying the less protected spaces and advancing patiently to colonize the center. Traditional bank has always responded as the incumbents respond: underestimating, imitating late and bad, and finally panic. Do you remember what happened to the telecos after The appearance of the OMVs? The interesting thing about this moment is not that Revolution offers its 2.25%payroll account, but that we have reached the point where the differential between “Neobanco” and “Bank” is purely semantic. It is the moment that the disruption complete its cycle and the disruptor becomes the new established power. We saw it with Amazon in retailwith Netflix in entertainment and now we are seeing it with Revolution in Banking. The Revolution It is over, the post-Banco era begins, where digital entities are simply “banks” and traditional are vestiges of another industrial era. “After Picasso, only God!” Said Dora Maar, lover and muse of the Malaga painter. And after the Neobancos reach the throne? Surely, A period of concentration – we also saw it in the telecos –where the most successful Neobancos absorb the little ones. And then? A stage in which traditional banking is oriented to a more concrete customer profile than the current generalist: seniors and conservatives. The unknown is whether Revolution will keep its advantage – cultural and technological – once this transformation is completed. History lets us intuit that no: yesterday’s revolutionary is the bureaucrat of tomorrow. There is no need to think about ing. But until that time comes, we are going to see a fantastic show: that of traditional bank giants (some are over 150 years old) that are going to be displaced by those who less than a decade were startups in a Coworking. In Xataka | India has been moving away from international payment networks. It is a hard blow for the giants Visa and Mastercard Outstanding image | Revolution

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