Apple Watch is one of the most anticipated wearables this year and a lot of hype is built around the upcoming gadget. There is not much learnt about the device's specs and features, but the high price tag surely raised more than a few eyebrows.
The Apple Watch is expected to start at $350 and that's for the base Sport model while the gold edition may cost as much as $5,000. It is clearly going to be a hard decision to make with so many cheaper options around.
Lumoid, a US-based startup, has a scheme that will favour almost every potential buyer. The startup basically rents out a wide range of gadgets before customers go ahead and purchase them and the founder and CEO of Lumoid Aarthi Ramamurthy has confirmed that Apple Watch will be a part of the offering when launched in April.
Customers will have the option to rent a set of five wearables to test for seven days. Once the test period is over, the customers must turn in the gadget and pay $20. But if the customer decides to buy one of the tested gadgets, the $20 fee is waived off. Customers will then receive a new model of the chosen device and not the same one they used for a week, which is in a used but like-new condition.
There are no hidden charges with the whole rental scheme but if customers damage any of the rented gadgets, there will be a fee to cover the cost of the missing or damaged item.
Currently, Lumoid offers various wearables such as sleep tracking and fitness bands from Withings, Jawbone, Misfit and Garmin. Samsung's Gear Fit is also available for rent among other wearables. Other than this, Lumoid offers an extensive range of photo and video gears, such as camera bodies, lenses, kits, GoPros and even drones.
Lumoid started offering wearables starting last month after the increasing demand from consumers.
"The wearable market is really expanding," Ramamurthy said, according to NBC News. "In wearables, people want to track anything from heart rate to how fast they are walking to running all the way to their blood pressure. So we looked at the market and thought there could be a slightly different business model compared to the photo video stuff."
