Posted on 2 Comments

iFUSE – the Heat not Burn hybrid

Pod modReading Time: 4 minutes

There’s more interest than ever before in safer alternatives to smoking, with millions of smokers either thinking about moving to new technology or already having taken the plunge – mostly with electronic cigarettes. E-cigs aren’t for everyone, though. Many smokers have tried them and found that they didn’t really work for them; some have been put off by misleading newspaper articles claiming that vaping is just as unhealthy as smoking; still more simply don’t want to give up their real tobacco.

Continue reading iFUSE – the Heat not Burn hybrid

Posted on Leave a comment

glo from BAT – iQOS’s latest rival

The Glo deviceReading Time: 4 minutes

Philip Morris have been watching the Japanese tobacco market with interest, and probably quite a lot of satisfaction, this year. Japan was the first major test market for their iQOS heat not burn product, and it’s performed remarkably well. In September 2015 the HeatSticks it uses to create vapour accounted for 0.7% of the country’s cigarette sales; twelve months later that had risen to 5.2%. PMI say that around a million Japanese smokers have switched from traditional cigarettes to iQOS, and that 70% of people who’ve tried the device have fully switched.

Now the iQOS could have a fight on its hands, as British American Tobacco prepare to launch a rival heated tobacco product in mid-December. BAT are already testing a hybrid e-cigarette/HnB product, the iFuse, in Romania (I’ve tried it, and will write about it soon) but this new one is going to be exclusive to Japan for a while.

Japan is an interesting market for HnB products. Strict rules on nicotine-containing liquids mean that e-cigarettes, which the tech-happy Japanese would be expected to enjoy, are still rare. That means the only real competition for HnB is traditional cigarettes, so it’s the perfect place to see how many smokers are willing to switch. For BAT there’s a bonus; they also get to see how their new device performs against the already-established iQOS.

Continue reading glo from BAT – iQOS’s latest rival

Posted on 11 Comments

iQos Review – How good is Heat not Burn anyway?

iQOS reviewReading Time: 5 minutes

Over the last two years Heat not Burn products have gone from being an experiment on sale in a few selected test markets to an increasingly mainstream product. Several devices are on sale or in consumer testing, and public awareness of the technology is growing fast. There are quite a few exciting systems out there now, but the global leader has to be Philip Morris’s iQOS.

iqos and 60 heets special offer

iQOS is the latest incarnation of PMI’s heated tobacco stick concept. The basic idea is that a short, cigarette-like tube containing a filter and processed tobacco is inserted into the end of a small electronic device. The device heats the tobacco to around 350°C, hot enough to release a vapour but not to cause combustion. Continue reading iQos Review – How good is Heat not Burn anyway?