Most of the time, I felt good owning something. But the idea of leasing a consumer electronic device starts to make more and more sense lately.
1. Forever The Hottest Gadget
It’s like buying a car vs leasing a car. With buying, you have a cost advantage and feel of ownership, while leasing might be a bit more expensive, but you always drive a new car!
See my point here is, consumer electronic devices like tablet, digital camera or even smartphone all have such a short life cycle these days, and we always want to use the newest iPhone or Galaxy devices, right? Always buying new ones are a waste of money (how are you gonna deal with your last year’s devices, throw them all away?), but having to settle on last year’s technology might mean hell for a lot of gadget lovers (read, me myself). So gadget leasing seems a good alternative, if the price is right.
The price of tablet rental ranges from $15 to $35/day, depending on service level and device. I can’t find a long-term leasing solution but I would assume it should work like leasing cars, you get a price premium in exchange of peace of mind and new gadgets.
2. Freedom of Choice
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Image Source: www.pcadvisor.co.uk[/caption]
Tired of iPad and want to try the new Galaxy tablet? Want a smaller iPad Mini instead of the bigger iPad 2? Prefer an E-Ink Kindle for better reading experience? Want to try out the new Chromebook Pixel to get a taste of future technology? With leasing model you can do them all without ditching out too much money. Everyone love to have choices. Having the opportunity to always try out the newest gadgets is an extremely appealing idea.
3. Pre-Loaded Content
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Image Source: http://obamapacman.com[/caption]
My wife always complains about my addiction to Apple Store. Every time we go out shopping in a mall, I’ll try to visit the Apple Store. ‘You’ve seem them all so many times and own most of the devices, why would you still want to go there? Don’t you feel boring after some time?’ Not really, because in there, I gotta try the newest pre-load apps on their iPads and iPod Touchs. There are always something new and I don’t have to pay for it.
This applies to leasing also. Leasing service providers can load the most popular games and TV shows and musics on the gadgets, and users not only can enjoy the most up-to-date hardware, they gotta use the software also. Starbucks already starts to provide free content to customers to add more value, same thing can be done to tablet leasing, only easier.
What do you think of gadget leasing? Will it be the next big thing?