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In just a month, Microsoft will end support for Windows 10 and doom millions of PCs to obsolescence. For the refurbished tech vendor Back Market, that’s an opportunity. This week, the Paris-based company is selling a limited run of old HP and Lenovo laptops for 99 euros, preinstalled with Google’s Chrome OS Flex operating system. The same laptops cost at least twice as much on Amazon with Windows 10 still installed. The announcement itself is a marketing stuntBack Market only has about 50 of the old laptops availablebut Amandine Durr, Back Market’s chief product officer, says the company is serious about turning PCs that can’t run Windows 11 into a new product category. Back Market plans to add an “Obsolete” section to its online store by year’s end, including laptops loaded with either ChromeOS Flex or Ubuntu Linux. “Those devices, we want people to keep loving them and using them, and there’s no reason why they should go to the landfills,” Durr says. The Windows 10 e-waste crisis When Microsoft announced Windows 11 in 2021, it introduced stricter upgrade requirements for existing PCs. The biggest roadblock is that PCs must support Trusted Platform Module 2.0, a special hardware component that keeps data encrypted and makes sure the computer hasn’t been tampered with. Microsoft has called TPM 2.0 a “non-negotiable standard for the future of Windows.” The upshot is that even if PCs otherwise meet Microsoft’s performance requirements, they won’t be able to upgrade, including some that are less than 10 years old. Users of these PCs can either try elaborate work-arounds for the TPM 2.0 requirement, pay $30 (or jump through other hoops) for one more year of security updates, or risk being vulnerable to new security exploits. One likely outcome is that a lot of perfectly fine PCs will get tossed. PIRG (a federation of independent public interest research groups) has estimated that 400 million PCs could be rendered obsolete by Windows 11’s hardware requirements, based on a 2022 analysis that showed 43% of PCs weren’t eligible to upgrade at the time. Canalys estimates that 240 million PCs would wind up in landfills due to the upgrade cutoff. “The announcement from Microsoft is maybe the start of the most massive e-waste crisis in the world, so we want people to be aware of that,” Durr says. Selling obsolete tech Back Market isn’t yet ready to turn old Windows PCs into Chromebooks and Linux machines on a large scale. For now, it’s only working with a single refurbisher on a batch of 50 laptops, with just a few models available: HP’s EliteBook 840 G3 and Lenovo’s ThinkPad T460 and ThinkPad T470. Durr says the plan is to expand over time as demand allows, gradually working with more refurbishers to replace Windows with a different operating system. Because they already have to factory-reset and reinstall Windows, she doesn’t believe it will be too burdensome to install ChromeOS Flex or Linux instead. [Photo: Back Market] “What matters for refurbishers and for sellers is the complexity of the process, and here we believe it’s minimal,” Durr says. Still, a lot’s in flux at the moment. Back Market isn’t working with Google on the initiative, as anyone can install ChromeOS Flex on an existing PC. Durr also wouldn’t commit to selling $99 or 99 laptops in the future, as that ultimately depends on what’s available through refurbishers. But she says obsolete models will always sell at a significant discount. Amandine Durr [Photo: Back Market] In the meantime, Back Market also wants to educate users of old Windows PCs about the possibility of replacing the operating system themselves, with video tutorials that it plans to offer through its website. “The right laptop, the right device, is the one that you already have,” Durr says. “With this obsolete computer programand categoryyou are going to be able to keep it.” “What we’re doing here is making sure there is the condition for the demand to exist, so that people will actually trust that these obsolete computers will work,” Durr says. If those users decide that they’d rather buy an up-to-date laptop instead, Back Market will connect them to refurbishers who might want to buy the old laptop, so they can feed it back into the “Obsolete” market. With a limited run of 99 laptops, Back Market is hoping to spark some interest in that idea.
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E-Commerce
Fast-food and casual-dining chains are battling out over whose menu has the best value. IHOP hopes that the pancake houses $6 breakfast deal stacks up with the restaurant sectors best bargains. McDonalds, Burger King, and Olive Garden have all recently unveiled discounted menu offerings as low- and middle-class consumers have been more loudly signaling that they are feeling pinched by inflation and anxiety about a weakening jobs market. IHOPs new nationwide, everyday $6 value offering ($7 in some pricier markets) features four breakfast meals, ranging from a ham-and-cheese omelet thats paired with buttermilk pancakes to scrambled eggs with cheese and hickory-smoked bacon and served with hash browns. Theres a clear message that guests want and need more value right now, says IHOP president Lawrence Kim during an interview with Fast Company. The Everyday Value Menu kicks off Monday with a national advertising campaign that will run on linear TV and streaming platforms, in public spaces, and on social channels including TikTok and Instagram. IHOPs new promotion flipped the marketing messaging from the chains prior all-day breakfast special, which was known as House Faves. The breakfast purveyor wanted to more clearly communicate the promo to diners with the word value. Both promotions were available from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., but Faves excluded weekends. IHOPs Everyday offer will instead run every day, adding the chains two busiest traffic days. We wanted to make the value menu simple to understand, Kim says. The bigger value bet comes as IHOP has reported softer sales for more than a year. The chains parent company, Dine Brands, reported declines for IHOPs domestic system-wide comparable same-restaurant sales in fiscal 2024 and the first two quarters of fiscal 2025. IHOP has projected that for the current fiscal year, that metric will range between a decline of 1% to a growth of 1%. During an earnings presentation to Wall Street analysts in August, Dine Brands CEO John Peyton said IHOP is seeing steady improvement in traffic and comp sales due to the expanded bet on a value menu, campaigns including an ad spot from this spring that featured NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr., and a recent decision to bring social creative and content teams in-house to generate more engagement with Gen Z consumers. Peyton said the recent pivot on the social strategy led IHOP to see a 400% increase in engagement, growing followers by 30% across TikTok and Meta on a quarter-to-quarter basis. All of these efforts, he promised, are keeping the brand relevant and well positioned for continued progress in the second half of the year. [Photo: IHOP] $6 vs. $16: The Price Gap IHOP Is Betting On While Kim didnt share the average amount spent by an IHOP guest, the $6 offering is a considerable discount from standard menu items. In New York City, for example, four pumpkin spice pancakes are $10, while combo meals that feature French toast, pancakes, eggs, and other breakfast staples are $16 and higher. Kim says the promotional offers were tested in several markets before launching nationally, as IHOP wanted to see a lift in traffic, overall sales, and restaurant profits. We proved success across all three of those metrics, he adds. Kim says IHOPs decision to get more assertive on the value meal promotion was in part validated by his own ongoing listening tour, in which he visits restaurants in states including Ohio and New York and meets with servers, cooks, general managers, and customers. As he spent time with diners, Kim says that they would consistently tell him that they love IHOPs food and are pleased with the chains service. But consumers also shared that they were craving deals. IHOPs ad spot was developed with ad agency Deutsch, which has also produced creative work for Taco Bell, Walmart, Nintendo, and Dr Pepper. Ryan Lehr, co-chief creative officer at Deutsch, says that the concept was focused on the different meanings of value. Theres value in being able to have a breakfast for $6, but theres also the value of being able to reconnect with your family and friends, Lehr says. The campaign was directed by Drew Kirsch, a filmmaker whose vibrant and colorful style has been seen in music videos starring Taylor Swift, Shakira, and Machine Gun Kelly. The visual portrays a whimsical dreamworld that features each of the four combos, with a backdrop depicting syrup streams, French toast mountains, and pancake umbrellas on a beach. We didnt just want to talk about $6, says Kim, though that theme is consistently hit upon in the video, too. We wanted to make sure that it brings the IHOP memories and bonds to life in a very unique way.”
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E-Commerce
The Innovation by Design Awards celebrate the people and companies behind some of the worlds best and most thought-provoking design work. This year, Fast Company is recognizing nearly 300 projects that are shaping the world we live in for the better. Every year, Fast Company’s editorial staff spends months poring over applications, vetting projects, and ultimately telling the stories of the best designs from the bunch. Here is a behind-the-scenes peek into how we make it happen. METHODOLOGY Nearly 2,000 applications were submitted to the 2025 Innovation by Design Awards. A team of staff editors and writers, alongside trusted freelancers and external expert judges, assessed each application based on our criteria, which include: Functional: What problem does the design solve? Logical: Does the design make sense? Does it work? Impactful: Does a design make a difference in its users lives? Beauty: Is it thoughtfully designed? In a world of countless new products and serviceswhere it takes little more than an AI prompt to create something newwe believe there is only more value to the practice of design and applying a critical lens to this work, says Mark Wilson, Fast Companys global design editor. Our team of journalists judge each project on both its own merits and its greater cultural context. Through this process, we aim to surface the most relevant projectsthose that matter the most today and into the future. Each winner is chosen after multiple rounds of judging and conversations about a designs role in the current cultural moment. This months-long process ensures that every project chosen to receive an Innovation by Design honor is representative of the best work in its field.
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E-Commerce
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