Hasta La Gadget!

We talked a bit about Google considering offering rental Chromebook computers in the past. Little over a year ago, the topic came up with prices expected to start at about $20 per month. Google has now announced the launch of rentals for Chromebooks and bulk purchases for its Apps customers.

The catch is that renting a Chromebook is going to cost you more than we thought last year with prices starting at $30 monthly. After renting the machine for the first 12 months, the rental fleet will go down to $25 per month and then for the third year the rental fee will be $20 per month. The rentals are actually being provided by a 3rd-party, CIT, so you’re not dealing directly with Google for the deal. Granted Chromebooks are relatively inexpensive to begin with so an outright purchase makes a lot more sense, in my opinion.

Google also allow people to rent Chromeboxes, the desktop equivalent to the Chromebook. The rental price for the desktop version of the machine is $25 per month with that rate declining to $18 over time. The best news is that these are month-to-month services, so if you’re not sure a Chromebook is for you at least you can try out for a couple months with no commitment. The bulk purchase of Chromebooks is also available at $599 per unit – with support, which seems very expensive for what you’re getting, but maybe it makes sense to corporate clients.

[via TheNextWeb]