My latest random idea — want to rent an iPad?

Posted By Hup | May 13, 2010

Yesterday I went to a tech conference here in San Francisco and to be quite honest it was pretty much the same ‘ol same ‘ol. But, one thing did end up sticking with me after I left the networking/panel/keynote filled fun and that was that the iPad is a KILLER demo device at events like the one I went to. Many people (including me and my co-workers) were not only telling people about what we do at isocket, but we were not able to easily show them what we were doing, too. The iPad allowed us to do this quickly, easily and instantly and it allowed us to interact with interested people on a whole new level.

So, after seeing all of this go down yesterday, I started thinking about how everyone will eventually need to carry an iPad at events (and I think that people at booths will be using them, too). But, most people don’t want to drop $500 or so on a device that they’re only going to use one weekend at a time, which is why I thought that there might be a market for renting them instead. This is why I thought of coming up with an iPad rental service called The iPad Borrower where people who need an iPad for these specific situations can rent them instead of buying.

Right now I am simply gauging interest for the service and if I see that there are as many people out there wanting to rent iPads as I think, then I’ll push the idea farther along. So, I guess only time will tell and I’ll update soon if anything comes of it. If you have any questions or ideas about renting an iPad or how iPad rental would work, please feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Filed Under random thoughts, san francisco

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    9 Talkies! to “My latest random idea — want to rent an iPad?”

    1. Ro on May 26th, 2010 8:14 pm

      I would rent one for up to two months right now. I am studying for the Bar exam and this would be handy and easier way to study then using a desktop or notebook computer. But I have no interest in owning one long term, I thought about other e-readers and right now they do not fit the bill.

    2. Stephanie Brown on July 14th, 2010 9:15 am

      Great idea!! Are you still doing this? Would it be cheaper to buy one or rent one for a month?

    3. Bill Sudsberry on July 30th, 2010 6:35 am

      I want an iPad so I can use it for target practice. I’m tired of having to put a new watermelon on top of the tree stump when I target shoot. I want something that will make my watermelon come back to life so I can shoot it again and again with my 22-LR.

    4. Mac Clark on August 28th, 2010 11:00 am

      I have a similar idea bouncing around, except it would be for a different base of people: students! I originally had the idea of renting mainly for the reason of etextbooks, but found that the selection out there, and the turn around makes it hard to get a profit. In looking though, I discovered a number of services that you could load up on the device. I’m doing some number crunching, and seems it’s still hard to make money if you keep the prices low, but still a cool idea.

    5. Thibaud on November 20th, 2010 1:38 pm

      Here a link to a french company who allready rents ipads. The site is only in french. It is not for a short period but for long term. 60€/month for a one year contract, 20€/month for a 3 year contract. The only advantage of this method is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to equipe your entire staff. They also change your ipad in case of problem.

      http://www.louervotreipad.com/etape2.aspx?d=pro

    6. vanessa graham on July 22nd, 2011 6:30 am

      We would be interested in leasing about 100 Ipads with internet each election season to communicate with the polling places. Many election boards already lease cell phones for election season.

    7. Travel Entertainment iPads on January 16th, 2013 6:02 pm

      Renting iPads is definitely the thing to do nowadays due to the financial aspect of it. We find with our business we get students, small businesses, outdoor vendors, caterers, and families with children renting our iPads, amongst other things we have on our website. Another great thing about our company is that not only do we rent on a daily, weekly or monthly basis…we rent to individuals as well as businesses, which some of our competitors do not. Try one out for a day…the cost is definitely reasonable.

    8. hire an ipad on March 22nd, 2013 4:38 am

      Thanks for Sharing very interesting & useful blog with us. We are providing hire an ipad Just $5 a day.

    9. Sandra Russo on May 11th, 2013 2:46 pm

      Would like to rent an Ipad to take for a trip to Europe for 10 days.

    What do you want to tell us, hmmm?