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Sandisk Corp. (SNDK) is losing its everyday shoppers, and fast. Its consumer arm sells the memory cards and flash drives that made the brand famous. That business lost more than a quarter of its sales in three months.

Consumer revenue fell 29% from the prior quarter to $397 million, according to Sandisk’s fiscal first-quarter results. On the earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Luis Visoso said the drop came “as the market adjusts to higher pricing.”

That is a polite way of saying Sandisk charged more and shoppers bought less. The admission came inside a record quarter, which makes it easy to miss.

Also read: Sandisk’s next chip could save cloud giants billions, but not us

Shoppers are paying more and buying less

Consumer sales also fell 39% from a year earlier, according to the same results. A year ago, that business brought in about 28% of Sandisk’s revenue. Today it accounts for less than 4%.

Booming data-center sales explain part of that shrinking share. Yet consumer dollars fell too, and with prices rising, unit sales almost certainly fell faster than revenue.

Chief Executive David Goeckeler still called the consumer arm “a differentiated strategic asset” in his prepared remarks.

That is the tension in plain view. Sandisk calls its shoppers strategic while its own price tags push them away.

Sandisk’s consumer revenue fell 29% in fiscal Q1 to $397 million as the market adjusted to higher prices, even though data-center sales jumped 61%.NurPhoto / Getty Images

Data centers are getting the flash first

Every memory card, phone, and server drive draws from the same supply of NAND flash chips. Sandisk is steering more of that supply toward data centers built for artificial intelligence, where customers sign multi-year contracts.

Data center revenue jumped 61% from the prior quarter to $4.8 billion, according to the release. Goeckeler said Sandisk “allocated more supply to address the growing demand from this end market.”

Those contracts now cover about half of Sandisk’s fiscal 2027 output, Visoso said. That leaves a thinner slice for the store shelf. The low end of its edge business, which supplies phone and PC makers, also shrank.

Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes opened the Q&A by tying Intel Corp.’s (INTC) weaker PC outlook to memory costs.

Goeckeler conceded that PC unit sales fell this year and will be “slightly down next year.” That means fewer devices sold, each carrying more storage at a higher price.

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Wall Street trims targets as Sandisk stock slides

Sandisk shares were down 12% by midday Oct. 30 despite an earnings beat, CNBC reported.

The sell-off hit the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM), where Sandisk makes up about 4% of holdings, according to StockAnalysis. The fund fell more than 8% by the afternoon, a sign that a memory basket offers little shelter.

The bigger blow came from Japan. Kioxia Holdings Corp., Sandisk’s flash manufacturing partner, warned that price gains are stalling, Bloomberg reported. Its NAND selling prices rose about 20% last quarter, after a 70% jump the previous quarter.

Sandisk’s own numbers tell a similar story. Pricing drove two-thirds of its growth in the quarter that ended in July, according to its fiscal fourth-quarter release. This time, pricing drove about 40%, Visoso said, and he guided to only “modest” increases ahead.

Put that next to the consumer slump, and the picture sharpens. Price gains are cooling at the top of the market just as they break demand at the bottom.

On paper, the stock looks cheap. Analysts expect about $215 a share in adjusted fiscal 2027 profit, according to StockAnalysis. At the Oct. 30 price, that is less than six times earnings, a discount usually reserved for profits expected to fade.

Wall Street still mostly likes the name, though the Oct. 30 trims undo part of earlier target hikes. StockAnalysis shows a consensus Buy rating from 25 analysts, with an average price target of $2,144.

Here are the latest calls, in pre-split dollars:

Hold, $1,300 target, down from $1,550: Wells Fargo’s Joseph Quatrochi, Oct. 30

Buy, $2,000 target, down from $2,500: Bank of America’s Wamsi Mohan, Oct. 30

Buy, $2,300 target, maintained: Barclays’ Thomas O’Malley, Oct. 30

Sandisk’s outlook hinges on the March quarter

Sandisk guided fiscal second-quarter revenue to $12.2 billion to $12.6 billion, according to the release. Split-adjusted trading for its eight-for-one stock split is set to begin Friday, Nov. 20, 2026, according to an SEC filing.

The real test comes after that. Visoso told Goldman Sachs analyst Jim Schneider that “our Q3 is normally our weakest sequential quarter.” That quarter covers roughly January through March.

I see two companies inside one quarter. The data center business looks durable, with multiyear contracts and customers coming back for more. The consumer business shows where pricing hits a wall, and that wall gets closer as price growth cools.

If you already own the stock, I would not sell into a slide driven by fear of a peak. I would trim only if Sandisk has grown into an outsized slice of your portfolio.

Profits kept climbing, yet the stock has roughly halved from its 52-week high of $2,354.39.

If you are on the sidelines, I would wait for the March quarter report. That seasonal low will show how much pricing power Sandisk has left.

For most of its history, Sandisk sold flash to shoppers first and servers second. This quarter shows that the order has flipped, and the shopper now waits at the back of the line.

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A laptop is a tool you touch all day, just not usually on the screen.

Your hands live on the keyboard and trackpad. The display sits upright, a foot or two away, and that setup has barely changed in decades.

Apple liked it that way. For years, the company argued that reaching up to poke a laptop screen was a bad idea, even as rivals added touchscreens to Windows machines.

That stance made the Mac different from almost every other premium laptop. It also kept Apple’s line between the Mac and the iPad clear.

So when Apple finally put touch on a Mac, the obvious question was whether it works. One of the most-watched tech reviewers on YouTube just gave his answer.

Apple (AAPL) announced the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display on Oct. 28, calling it the first Mac with Touch, according to its press release. Pre-orders are open, and the laptops will reach customers and stores on Friday, Nov. 6.

Marques Brownlee, the YouTube reviewer known as MKBHD, tried it in a first-impressions video titled “Macbook PROLED XDR Impressions: They Said They Wouldn’t!” His verdict on the headline feature was cool.

“It’s still kind of sloppy and messy to use it,” Brownlee said, Dexerto reported.

What MKBHD didn’t like about the touchscreen Mac

Brownlee laid out his objections plainly. “I never want fingerprints on my display,” he said, adding that he also never wants “the display wobbling around as I’m touching it,” according to Dexerto.

He also didn’t want to “hold my arm out and have my arm get tired.”

That’s the same complaint Steve Jobs made about vertical touchscreens in 2010. “It doesn’t work, it’s ergonomically terrible,” Jobs said at the time, Gulf News noted.

Here are the main problems Brownlee flagged, according to Dexerto and Gulf News:

The screen still wobbles. Apple stiffened the hinge slightly, but the display still moves when pressed.

No Apple Pencil. The MacBook Pro doesn’t support it.

Mac apps aren’t built for fingers. Most desktop software still assumes a keyboard and trackpad, and many demos he saw involved mis-touches and fumbles.

Apple adapted the Mac rather than rethinking it. He said Apple is “adapting for you,” for example by enlarging small buttons so they’re easier to tap.

Tom’s Guide Editor-in-Chief Mark Spoonauer raised the same Pencil gap in his own hands-on. “We’ll have to see how well touch works with third-party apps,” he wrote.

Marques Brownlee called Mac touch “sloppy and messy” but praised the OLED screen and weight.Mario Tama / Getty Images

Why MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display costs you $400 more

This is the number I’d focus on. The 14-inch touch model with the M5 Pro chip starts at $2,899, while the existing 14-inch MacBook Pro with the same chip and a mini-LED screen costs $2,499, PPC Land reported.

Apple is keeping the mini-LED models on sale alongside the new ones, MacRumors reported. So the $400 buys the OLED panel, the touch layer, the lighter body and the Dynamic Island, not more computing power.

Related: Apple is about to break a rule Steve Jobs defended

Here’s how the lineup stacks up in the U.S., according to Apple and PPC Land:

14-inch MacBook Pro, M6: $1,999

14-inch MacBook Pro, M5 Pro (mini-LED): $2,499

14-inch MacBook Pro, M5 Pro (PROLED XDR, touch): $2,899

16-inch MacBook Pro, M5 Pro (PROLED XDR, touch): $3,399

14-inch MacBook Pro, M5 Max (PROLED XDR, touch): $4,499

16-inch MacBook Pro, M5 Max (PROLED XDR, touch): $4,799

By my math, the touch model costs 16% more than the same-chip mini-LED version. It’s $900 more than the M6 MacBook Pro, Apple’s cheapest new Pro.

If you split the $2,899 base price over 12 months, that’s about $241.58 a month before tax.

Apple’s Upgrade lease, run through Klarna, starts at $78.99 a month over 24 months at that price, according to Apple. A lease isn’t ownership, though, so read the terms before you sign.

What MKBHD liked about the new MacBook Pro

It wasn’t all bad. Brownlee found the touchscreen responsive and smooth, with multi-touch gestures, pinch-to-zoom, and touch window management, Dexerto reported.

He also saw a clear use for iPhone app developers, who can tap a simulated iPhone on screen. And he said he’s “fine” with touch as an optional feature, even if he’s “personally not interested.”

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The display and the weight impressed him most. “I’d upgrade for the weight savings before I would for the touchscreen,” he said, according to Dexerto.

Apple’s numbers back that up. The 14-inch model weighs 3 pounds, half a pound lighter than before, and the 16-inch weighs 4 pounds, according to Apple. The OLED panel hits 2,000 nits of peak brightness with a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio.

“PROLED XDR is the world’s best laptop display,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s chief hardware officer, in the release.

Brownlee also noted that the nano-texture finish feels softer to the touch and that both finishes hide fingerprints well, Gulf News reported.

Who should buy the touchscreen MacBook Pro

Based on Brownlee’s take, here’s how I’d sort it:

Photo and video pros: The screen is the real upgrade, and touch is a bonus.

iPhone app developers: Touch makes testing apps on a simulated iPhone more natural.

Frequent travelers: The half-pound weight cut matters if you carry it every day.

Everyone else: The $2,499 mini-LED model has the same chip. The $1,999 M6 model may be all the laptop you need.

Microsoft Word, Excel, Zoom, and other apps are getting touch support “later this year,” Apple said. If touch is your reason to buy, waiting for those updates costs you nothing.

Should you pre-order before Nov. 6?

If you’re on the fence, I’d treat this like any big purchase. Decide what you’re paying for, and make sure you’ll use it.

Students and teachers can save $150 on the 14-inch model, which drops to $2,749 with education pricing, according to Apple. Trade-in credit can also take a chunk off the price.

Brownlee’s verdict is a useful filter.

If you want the best screen on a laptop and a lighter bag, the new MacBook Pro delivers.

If you’re paying $400 extra mainly to touch the screen, you may be paying for the part of the Mac that still needs work.

Related: JPMorgan resets Apple stock price target amid iPhone panic

Verizon’s CEO Dan Schulman, who took over the top spot about a year ago, made a bold statement during his first earnings call in the top job.

“We must shift to a customer-first focus and redefine our trajectory,” he said.

That’s a bold statement from a company that was relentlessly teased, along with AT&T, by rival T-Mobile and its former CEO John Legere from 2012-2020. Legere dubbed T-Mobile the “Un-carrier.”

It’s a term that was used broadly to describe T-Mobile’s efforts to change how wireless companies treated their customers. It started with things like dropping overage charges, ending long-term contracts, and offering clear pricing, while simply treating customers better overall.

“Un-carrier has become synonymous with 100% customer commitment. We set out to change the game, and the results speak for themselves. See the moves that got us to where we are today,” the company shared on its website.

Now, at a time when you can argue that T-Mobile has lessened its focus on continuous customer-facing improvement, Schulman wants Verizon to take that title, and he appears to be making progress.

Verizon has one focus

When he stepped into the job, Schulman made it clear that he was not proposing small changes.

“This is not a course correction. It is a fundamental change in our strategic approach to customers. The only way we can drive sustainable value for our shareholders is by significantly raising our game and winning responsibly in the market,” he said.

CEOs, even new ones, rarely admit that their company needs major change, but Schulman embraced the idea and, one year later, he seems pleased with Verizon’s progress.

Schulman introduced Verizon’s “Simplicity Plan,” a flat-rate, unlimited wireless plan, and revamped its loyalty program.

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Verizon’s customer-first strategy has coincided with a sharp improvement in subscriber growth and customer retention.

Verizon reported postpaid phone net additions of 406,000 in Q3 2026, an 820% increase year over year, according to its third-quarter earnings release. In addition, more customers chose to stay with the carrier during the quarter, too, with consumer postpaid phone churn improving slightly to 0.87% for the quarter.

The growth, the company noted, has been a pattern.

Acquired nearly 1.7 million mobility and broadband subscribers in the first nine months of 2026, compared to 879,000 in the first nine months of 2025.

Mobility and broadband service revenue reached approximately $23.5 billion, representing a 2.9% increase year over year, continuing a sequential improvement from 2.8% in second-quarter 2026 and 1.6% in first-quarter 2026.

“By prioritizing customer-first offerings like Simplicity and our expanded loyalty program over heavy subsidies, we are winning loyal, high-value customers while expanding margins, reducing churn, and generating strong sustained cash flow,” Schulman said.

Verizon saw a large gain in phone customers in Q3.Shutterstock

Verizon’s rival probably isn’t T-Mobile

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) measures consumers’ satisfaction with wireless providers, offering a broader picture of how customers view their carriers.

Even with all of T-Mobile’s focus on customer service over the years, the difference between the carriers has never been that large.

ACSI

The room for growth, however, may not be from Verizon taking share from T-Mobile or AT&T. Instead, traditional carriers are battling Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), which are lower-cost, prepaid services that rate much better with consumers.

ACSI

Former ACSI Managing Director David VanAmburg explained why MVNOs have an edge, noting that network quality isn’t a significant differentiator between the traditional carriers and the MVNOs that use the same networks.

“Customer satisfaction differences in MVNOs and MVNOs then come down to everything else such as flexibility, pricing, and value propositions,” VanAmburg told FierceWireless in 2019.

“Here, MVNOs are doing better than [traditional carriers]. One distinguishing factor is MVNOs’ prepaid options offer more flexibility than [traditional] contracts.”

Verizon has the right idea

I’ve been a T-Mobile customer since Legere took over and dropped overage charges. I’m not sure of the exact date, but probably sometime in 2013, because the company seemed focused on user experience and customer satisfaction.

At the time, I appreciated the clear pricing, promise of no increases, and not having to worry about overages.

Now, roughly 13 years later, I don’t feel the same loyalty because Legere’s successors, first Mike Sievert (2020-2025) and currently Srinivasan Gopalan (2025-present), just don’t seem as focused on customer service as Legere was.

That’s anecdotal and not backed by ACSI data, although the success of MVNOs suggests the big-three wireless carriers have room to make gains. But there’s also room to claim the disruptor crown that T-Mobile has slowly moved away from.

“As T-Mobile has grown, so too has the institutional pressure around it. T-Mobile is no longer a hungry, scrappy challenger. It’s a big dog, and with that comes stockholder pressure, increased infrastructure costs, and pressure to cut costs in staff and training,” Android Authority’s Andrew Grush wrote in July.

He offered some concrete examples.

“After years of slowly marching away from its Un-carrier image, T-Mobile started sprinting hard over the last year or so. Not only have we seen the death of all-inclusive taxes and fees, but the entire way the company approaches its customers is a complete reversal of the legendary Legere era. Most recently, T-Mobile has announced plans to migrate its legacy users over to newer plans as it retires Magenta, Simple Choice, and a handful of others,” he wrote.

Grush was not subtle in his assessment of the changes.

“And with this move, the final nail in Un-carrier’s coffin has now been hammered into place,” he added.

That, perhaps, gives Verizon an opening. Schulman certainly thinks so.

“We put our customers front and center, and we vowed to reclaim our market leadership and play to win. We have accomplished a lot, and today’s Verizon is in a fundamentally better position operationally, financially, and competitively,” he said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call.

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Home Depot is making a significant move to lure customers into its stores after recently seeing weak sales growth.

The home-improvement chain revealed in its most recent earnings report that its U.S. comparable sales increased 1.3% year over year in the second quarter of 2026. 

Foot traffic in its stores also slipped during the quarter, as recent Placer.ai data revealed that average visits per Home Depot location declined 0.6% year over year. 

“Consumer uncertainty and housing affordability continue to pressure demand for larger home improvement projects,” a trend that is impacting sales, Home Depot Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail said on an earnings call in August. 

“We have a lot of volatility,” he said. “We have unplanned cost pressure that is significant in the market, and we have frozen housing conditions. With all of that, we are focused on controlling what we can control.”

Home Depot announces new customer discounts ahead of Black Friday

As Home Depot faces significant headwinds, it has launched steep discounts and generous deals for the holiday shopping season.  

The company has announced in a recent press release that its Black Friday Savings Event, which offers deals on home improvement essentials, major appliances, power tools, and holiday décor in stores and online, officially begins on Nov. 5 and ends on Nov. 25. 

During the event, Home Depot is offering customers buy-one-get-one-free (BOGO) deals on select power tools. For instance, customers who purchase an eligible tool or battery kit from brands such as DEWALT, Milwaukee, and RYOBI can receive a select power tool for free. 

The home-improvement chain is also offering significant discounts on major appliances. 

For example, Home Depot states that customers can “save up to an extra $500 on qualifying refrigeration purchases of $2,498 or more, up to $300 on laundry purchases of $1,698 or more, up to $300 on cooking purchases of $1,498 or more and up to $150 on dishwasher purchases of $798 or more, with a maximum discount of $1,250.”

Read more: Lowe’s launches a new service as it works to win back customers

Home Depot is also launching deals on Hubspace smart home products, tool kits, and accessories during the event.

For holiday decor, the company is offering savings on indoor and outdoor items, including 100-count LED string lights for $5.98, select 3.5-foot LED pre-lit inflatables for $19.98, and 6.5-foot LED pre-lit artificial Christmas trees for $49.98.

The Black Friday deals from Home Depot come as it faces heightened competition from Lowe’s, its top rival. Lowe’s kicked off its Black Friday sales early on Oct. 29, and they are set to last for four weeks. 

Just like Home Depot, Lowe’s is offering discounts on holiday décor, tools, appliances, and outdoor power equipment, with special deals featuring free products with select purchases from major tool brands.

Lowe’s is taking it a step further this year by expanding its annual 10 Days of Deals to 12 Days of Deals, which begins on Nov. 16. It is also launching its biggest Black Friday savings during Thanksgiving week. 

Home Depot is launching generous Black Friday deals as it struggles to dramatically increase its U.S. comparable sales. jetcityimage / Getty Images

Home Depot faces mounting challenges heading into the holidays

Home Depot is also making a major push to attract holiday shoppers at a time when many are limiting their spending due to economic pressures.

A recent survey by Thrivent found that 52% of Americans expect the current economic environment to affect their holiday spending at least somewhat. Approximately 72% said inflation is negatively impacting their household finances, while 71% said the same about gas prices.

Amid these challenges, 66% of Americans said they will purchase fewer gifts during the holiday season this year, up from 56% in 2025, while 46% plan to buy for fewer people, up from 37%. Also, 51% plan to purchase less expensive gifts while holiday shopping.

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In an interview with Retail TouchPoints in August, Neil Saunders, a retail analyst at GlobalData, said there will be some winners and losers during the holiday season as consumers change their spending habits. 

“2026 will be a solid enough holiday season and consumers will come out and spend,” said Saunders. “That said, under the headline, spending will be selective and consumers will be very discerning about what they buy and where they buy it. This will mean results will be polarized. Some retailers will see good gains and others won’t.”

For Home Depot and other home-improvement chains, these consumer trends may be exacerbated by continued housing market headwinds. 

According to Freddie Mac data, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate reached 6.86% in September, up from 6.67% in August and 6.35% one year ago. 

As rates went up, existing-home sales decreased 2.2% year over year in September, recent data from the National Association of Realtors showed. Also, the median existing-home price was $417,500, up 1.3% from a year earlier. 

“Despite the small monthly gain on a seasonally adjusted basis, August and September marked the two slowest months for home sales this year,” said Lawrence Yun, National Association of Realtors chief economist, in a press release.

“Further increases in mortgage rates in recent weeks mean fewer buyers can qualify to purchase a home.”

Related: Home Depot faces uphill battle amid a growing customer problem