Can renting a computer be an alternative to buying one ?
http://cyrusfarivar.com/blog/?p=1200
Apple & Orange (the companies, not the fruit) are combining to let people rent computers.
http://cyrusfarivar.com/blog/?p=1200
“So here’s the deal: Apple France and French ISP Orange are hooking up to provide French consumers with a rented MacBook and 1 Mbps DSL for €60 ($79.50) a month. That works out to about €2 a day. (You can upgrade to 8 Mbps DSL for an additional €5 per month.)
The catch is that you have to sign up for three years, but that includes three years of Apple Care.
Louis-Pierre Wenes, executive director of France Telecom’s domestic operations compared this deal to getting a €150 rebate on the price of a MacBook (€1099) plus an additional two years of AppleCare (€319) — in that €35 that pays for the computer x 36 months = €1260. However, M. Wenes didn’t explain what happens at the end of the three-year deal. (There also appears to be a rent-to-buy option, but it’s unclear how that works out.)”
I imagine after the term is done, Apple gets the computers, recycles them, clears the data and gives you a new upgraded one with all your data.
Yeah. Right. Though, this could be a good eco-friendly business model…
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2 Comments
I’m not so sure this is eco-friendly. Anybody who is renting a computer will undoubtedly want to opt for a new computer, and not a three year old computer. Thus, the life cycle of a particular machine doesn’t change- when that three year old laptop comes back, who are they going to rent it to? It’s more likely to get scrapped for parts.
While it is not entirely eco-friendly, this new business model makes companies accountable for how they handle their own waste. The life-cycle of a product might not improve, but accountability for how it is disposed might.