Amplicity is a tiny desktop PC you can rent for $17 per month http://goo.gl/fBXiST

The mainstream PC market has changed dramatically over the years, from the beige desktop boxes of the late 90s to the modern day when super-thin laptops are competing with Chromebooks and tablets. A startup called The Hive thinks there’s still room for a desktop PC in the consumer space, but not as device that you buy and own forever. The Hive’s upcoming Amplicity PC is a subscription-based Windows micro-computer that you rent for $99 every six months (about $17 per month) and includes a suite of apps and cloud services.

Amplicity is what the company calls a “Pocket PC,” resurrecting a term that used to mean something quite different in the era before the iPhone. It makes sense, though. This x86 PC is about the size of a large phablet, but it contains all the components you need for a basic Windows computing experience. It’s even smaller than newer Intel NUC mini-PCs. The basic orange Amplicity model (technically Amplicity Anywhere) that will be featured in the $99 subscription deal is powered by a 64-bit Intel Atom Bay Trail CPU, 2GB of RAM, and a small solid state hard drive of unspecified size.

At the end of each six-month term, you have a few choices. If Amplicity isn’t for you, the device can be returned and you can forget about that unpleasant chapter of your life. You can also start another $99 six-month term with the same Pocket PC. However, if there’s a new version of Amplicity available, you can upgrade to that one and start fresh at no additional cost.

Spending $200 per year on a low-power PC with limited storage would be financially questionable, but The Hive hopes to sweeten the deal with included software and services. The Amplicity will have Windows pre-installed along with an Office 365 subscription and Adobe Creative Cloud with 1TB of online storage. Several Adobe creative apps will be installed as well, though the company doesn’t say which ones. Presumably it will be Photoshop and Lightroom — that’s the basic Creative Cloud package for which Adobe usually charges $10 per month.

A more powerful version of the Amplicity will be available for professionals that need a little more power. Instead of subscribing to this piece of hardware, you’d buy it outright for $300-400. This device will be based on an Intel Core M processor, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. The Hive will also sell workstation docks (seen at right) that your Amplify module can be slotted into, providing more storage, a dedicated GPU, or even a faster CPU.

If you need Office 365 and Creative Cloud apps, the Amplicity subscription might be a good deal. You’re looking at $10 per month for each, so that’s already $120 in savings included with the six-month $99 subscription. If the Atom chip powering the Amplicity can handle the load, it could be a well-equipped little machine that you’re almost being paid to use.

The Hive will start offering the basic Amplicity Anywhere model in the next few months on a subscription plan in the US. The more powerful professional model won’t be out until later in 2015.

Now read: Intel Compute Stick transforms any HDMI screen into a desktop computer

 

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Amplicity is a tiny desktop PC you can rent for $17 per month