Would you rent an iPhone?
With three-quarters of Brits recently surveyed finding the iPhone too expensive, a possible solution is to rent one.
erento is an online rental web site which matches people with items to rent out with people who want to use them.
"Having coughed up quite a lot of money for this beautiful gadget, I heard about this new online rental site and figured that I could make my money back in a just a few weeks," comments Steve Morrison, an enterprising iPhone owner and rental supplier on erento. "It is perfect for someone looking to impress at a party and is a really effective way of trying before buying."
While it sounds OK in principle, I can see a few problems.
Firstly, the service makes iPhones available for either £29 per day or £99 per week, which is a pretty expensive way of finding out whether you like the device or not.
Secondly, presumably they're already assigned a phone number, which means it would be quite difficult to test receiving your own personal calls and voicemail messages.
Thirdly, this could mean that it's impossible for the hirer to synchronise their iPhone with iTunes. This might not be a problem for testing it out for a day or so, but it means you'll either have to listen to someone else's music, or go without.
Fourthly, I'm not even sure that this is legal — though that's unlikely to bother many people actually using the service.
I'm wondering what advantage is left over simply going into an Apple Store and asking to get a demonstration of the iPhone?
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