
Why It Makes Sense to Rent Rather Than Buy Your Devices - kartickv
https://medium.com/@karti/why-it-makes-sense-to-rent-rather-than-buy-your-devices-4efb10d9d2ac
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celticninja
This article doesn't make any sense.

Desktop Vs laptop - do a bit of thinking before buying, how, why, where and
when will you use it?

Same thing goes for the iPad/Surface decision. Work out what you want it for,
research to see if it does that well and decide accordingly.

Insufficient memory - look for devices that have expandable memory. This
mistake should only occur once. Buy an item with no expandable memory, realise
what a ball ache that is, avoid this type of device in future.

Unused devices - eBay/gumtree/shpock or whatever your local equivalent is. Get
some money Mack toward your new/replacement device.

Hardware defects on a new item should mean it is replaced whether you bought
it new or rented it.

Rent a second hand device to save money. Or you know buy a second hand device
to save money.

The basic economics of it are that renting will be more expensive than buying
because the agency renting you your item needs to make a profit. On a phone
with an expected life of 2 - 4 years the renter wants to recoup costs in the
first year when demand for the item is high, the subsequent years rent is the
profit. So if you rent it in year one you will essentially be paying for the
item. If you rent a second hand device in year 3 and 4 you will probably pay
close to what a second hand device would cost you at that time.

Refurbished devices may only have a 1 year warranty in India but that second
hand macbook you are going to rent had either been refurbished or will be when
you drop it back and pick up a replacement (again refurbished).

I could go on, basically renting is not going to save you money over buying
and reselling an item when you are finished with it.

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kartickv
Almost everything you said is missing the point in some way.

You can think all you want, but your needs change over time, and in any case
can't be foreseen by reading some articles. There's no substitute to using it
for a few months to understand.

It's easy to say "look for devices that have expandable memory", but many
don't, particularly Macbooks. As an iOS developer, I need macOS.

I'm not going to go on and refute your other (frankly mistaken) points, except
to say that yes, renting will be more costly, in exchange for the benefits you
get. There's no free lunch, and the article doesn't claim there is. The point
is that the benefits renting provides are worth the extra cost, for many
people.

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detaro
It would make sense, yes, if someone would provide it for a useful price
point. Given that they'd have to price in repair insurance and want to make a
profit I don't see it happening for many use cases.

Short-term rental (e.g. for tests or if you really only need it a limited
time) is a different thing and exists already.

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kartickv
The OEM could be offering rentals as a way to drive sales, making the same
profit as they do when they sell it outright.

