So I was just reading about the Silicon Valley library that’s lending out Google Chromebooks. Then it hit me. Why can’t a company exist that lends out education technology to cash-strapped schools?
Does your school want an iPad lab but can’t afford to pay the $20,000? That price doesn’t even include the cost of having a tech-savvy person able to manage the lab. This argument holds true for basically all education technology. It’s expensive and still not easy for schools to adopt.
But what if a company existed that rented out education technology? Would your school be interested in renting an iPad lab that cost just $4,000 for a semester? While that price is just a made-up number and reflects zero research on my part, it’s important.
The 2 Big Problems
If you could have cutting-edge education technology in your school for a fraction of the price, why wouldn’t you do it? The only big problems are damage and how the company actually made any money. Ok, those are pretty big problems.
- Problem #1: what’s the insurance plan for an iPad lab or a computer lab in general? Who would pay for the damaged product?
- Problem #2: how would the company break even? If a company paid $20,000+ for the hardware and then has to pay to maintain said hardware… that’ll cost a pretty penny.
Would You Rent Education Technology?
Still, it’s an interesting idea (if I don’t say so myself). I’d be very curious to see if anyone thinks this idea has merit / would work / if you’d want your school to rent education technology. Long story short, I think this company could figure out a way to be cashflow positive after a couple years while supplying a very necessary thing to schools.
Please share your thoughts in the comments, our Facebook page, or via Twitter. I’ll be standing by to keep the conversation going and answer questions!