Refurbished electronics marketplace Back Market has turned Microsoft's planned obsolescence timeline into a provocative marketing moment with The Obsolete Computer. The initiative spotlights a stark reality: when Microsoft ends Windows 10 support in October 2024, nearly 400 million functional laptops will effectively become electronic waste overnight — not because they've stopped working, but because they won't receive security updates.

Rather than simply critique the system, Back Market is offering these soon-to-be-discarded devices a second life. The company professionally refurbishes Windows 10 laptops and installs alternative operating systems like ChromeOS Flex or Linux Ubuntu, then gives them away through a contest running until 20 October 2025. It's part stunt, part education campaign and part genuine attempt to redirect perfectly good hardware away from landfills.

TREND BITE
Back Market is taking sustainability messaging beyond abstract environmental promises toward concrete action that consumers can see and understand. By positioning planned obsolescence as "Big Tech's dirty trick," the company frames refurbishment not as a budget compromise but as an act of defiance against wasteful corporate practices — and invites consumers to see themselves as part of a bigger movement.