More South African companies are renting laptops

More South African companies have moved towards renting laptops for their staff due to a weak local currency and rising prices.

Since early September the rand has lost another 8% against the dollar, making it possible that laptop prices will be hiked from 15% this year to around 20%, said The Notebook Company, a local laptop and accessories retailer.

According to the company’s CEO, Christopher Riley, rentals now account for 10% of the its turnover.

“So far this year we have seen a tremendous upswing in short term rentals, typically from larger organisations who are renting for specific projects – up to 10 to 100 laptops for two months.

“But I also think the price of buying laptops has also played a hand in this. While laptop sales are slipping they are still rather buoyant. But I think more people might start renting – certainly larger companies,” Riley said.

Laptop rentals, a year ago, accounted for 5% of The Notebook Company’s revenue. Riley believes that, by year end, rentals could account for up to 15% of revenue.

“This seems to be a new trend,” he said.