> The presence of the second-tier manufacturers forces an interoperable world at the component level. This is ignoring that there was a market for flash before

> The presence of the second-tier manufacturers forces an interoperable world at the component level. This is ignoring that there was a market for flash before we had NVME SSD controllers, and that there still is one. NVME is a big chunk of where flash goes now, but I don't think vertical integration is going to make flash disappear in the secondary market. In any case, -- yes, it's good to have a lot of manufacturers around for the industry. But it may not be as safe of a bet to buy from those other guys. There's enough gotchas in the design and support, and there's also the whole issue of supply chains and component quality.