So they'll keep selling products called "Western Digital SN550" running at half the speed, but you'll now be able to tell them apart by seeing the model number update from "WDBA3V0010BNC-WRSN" to e.g. "WDBA3V0011BNC-WRSN"?
This is very scummy.
That's been my overall opinion of WD in recent years.
I have been a supporter of WD since the 90s when I bought my first 2.5GB Caviar drive. My NAS and Server are filled with WD Reds and my gaming PC is using an WD Black NVME. I recently pulled WD Green and Blues from some systems and for the first time in 25 years used something other than WD to replace them.
WD's branding use to make it really simple to understand what you were buying. You knew what Green, Blue, Red, Purple, and Black drives were capable of and you bought accordingly.
Now it seems they're leveraging that trust and comfort to fuck people over and for what? How does disappointing your customer help your brand?
I can no longer trust them and I'm not going to invest the effort to ensure that I'm buying the right Red or Blue drive from them. It's sad but I'm just going to take my money elsewhere.
edit: pro -> plus
edit: or the plus did? well. they've successfully managed to confuse me, which was probably their goal. apologies.
Red pro: CMR, "remains the same"
Red plus: the new CMR SKUs that were previously sold under the same models as CMR and mixed SMR SKUs
Red: used to be CMR now SMR
as far as I can tell
CMR:good for everything, and NAS+RAID use. You want this one pretty much for everything.
SMR: good for light desktop work, very risky for NAS+RAID use.
Older plain Red drives are CMR and therefore good, but check that their model string contains EFRX and not EFAX because WD at one point silently started shipping SMR drives labeled as WD Red, and the only difference was the model string, which contains EFRX for CMR (good) drives and EFAX for SMR (bad) ones.
Be aware however that WD uses the model number in a very inconsistent way, for example there are new WD Red Plus models who have the EFAX designation, still are CMR drives, therefore good. Use it as indicator for older models, while newer models can be sorted out using their commercial name.
Therefore, as of today:
WD Red: those are mostly/all SMR drives. Avoid them.
WD Red Plus: those initially were the old CMR WD Red ones, simply relabeled to show the difference. Good for everything. Newer ones have a different model string now which should imply some improvement besides a plain relabeling. They're still CMR and good. Those are what I'm currently using on my home NAS.
WD Red PRO: those are high end CMR drives with better performance and durability standards than the Plus ones. Good for everything and indicated for heavy load situations. More costly however.
Further details:
https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library...
https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library...
https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library...
Yes, Plain WD Red drives are marketed as NAS drives; just ignore them.
Tl;Dr: Avoid plain WD Reds, use Plus for low cost desktop or Home/SOHO NAS hardware, and Pro for more intensive uses.
https://i.redd.it/4sg8kvhe1nuy.png
Unfortunately I can't seem to find one for their SSDs, which is certainly a problem.
Not surprisingly that WD are going down to this route. "Shareholders is a priority over customers" is a common business mantra.
It hurts you with rigorous buyers, but most are not that.
How inferior?
>These derivative models are toned down versions of standard ones, perhaps offering a reduced number of HDMI ports or lower quality components. However, it's hard to say -- it can even be hard to tell which specific TVs are derivatives, requiring a careful scan of a model number which could total eight or nine digits.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/benzingainsights/2012/11/21/why...
Making different SKUs (with same generic marketing name) can happen (which WD did NOT do here) for good reasons, but most of the time you get better performance out of it.
What WD did is really shameful and very much not the norm in this industry.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/black-friday-insider-secrets...
[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/benzingainsights/2012/11/21/why...
This is news to me. Can you elaborate?
What WD is doing hits differently and would be like LG using LED panels in the OLED*A line of TVs or if the Ford F-Series PowerStroke suddenly came with an EcoBoost engine. It betrays the trust people have in the line/model that WD has created.
So then the customer can just order from his phone right in front of the cashier the item he doesn't want to price-match?
I don't get how that's helping anyone.
Let's take one manufacturer, I'll call them Sorta.
One store will sell the Sorta Beautysleep, another sells the Sorta Quietrest, and a third has the Sorta Hamptonshire. All three are identical design, materials, construction, and appearance. The only difference is the label Sorta attaches before shipping to each store's distribution center.
So when you ask for a price match on that first store's Sorta Beautysleep, no price match for you! It's an exclusive product available at our store only.
I once did this at Lowe's by finding the item at home Depot for just a few cents cheaper and after buying 100 bundles saved a bunch of money.
They recently stopped doing the extra 10% off.
In a different vein, when I was younger my mom price-matched a TV at Best Buy against a lower price at the Future Shop across the street, it was about $50 on a $1100 unit. We went to Best Buy first, found the TV we liked, then went across the road to see if there were any better/cheaper options. We ended up going back to Best Buy because the sales people actually seemed to give a damn about their job and the customer, and the fact they were not paid commission (unlike Future Shop), all combined with the price matching made it the more appealing decision. IIRC the BB extended warranty was a better deal.
Simple:
* You might trust one place to provide better ongoing service after sale - for instance in the UK John Lewis used to offer a price match ('never knowingly undersold') which would include a 2 year store warranty, while most other retailers only offered a 1 year warranty. On top of that, over time you find out which retailers will just sort your problem out when you bring it to them, while others will require you to deal with some helpline and will fob you off.
* Price-match often also applies after the sale (i.e. we will match to 14 days after the sale) which provides the promotional message of 'you don't have to worry about shopping around now - you can complete the sale and if you would have got it cheaper you can get the difference back anyway'. This is also an additional customer price guarantee if an item goes on sale or is discounted immediately after purchase.
* If you see a store online nearby that has better pricing, you can avoid the trip to the other store, or alternatively you may be able to visit your local store. If price-matching and buying multiple items, this may also mean that you can get all your items from one shop without having to visit multiple.
* You might be able to get a better sales experience from a certain store - for instance I used price-match the other day on a monitor I was looking to purchase, because my local electronics store was more expensive but I knew that they would have a working sample out on display (while the other cheaper shop would just have it in the stock room, and it would be a faff to actually see the item).
For the stores, it is also about 'loyalty'. If a customer always buys their electronics from your store, you don't want them going and shopping with your competitors.
From that perspective, instances like this that will cause people to place less trust in the marketing names and look into the actual model numbers is a good thing.