More South African companies have moved towards renting laptops for their staff due to a weak local currency and rising prices.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
According to the company’s CEO, Christopher Riley, rentals now account for 10% of the its turnover.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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 \u2013 certainly larger companies,” Riley said.<\/p>\n
Laptop rentals, a year ago, accounted for 5% of The Notebook Company\u2019s revenue. Riley believes that, by year end, rentals could account for up to 15% of revenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis seems to be a new trend,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The rand is in trouble<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n 5 reasons for the weak rand \u2013 and what the SARB thinks about it<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n