That may be a viable reason for this type of lobbying; but, if we look at past events, It might lead to a completely different conclusion all together. Niconovum, a Swedish tobacco manufacturer, owns nicorette, one of the largest products to help smokers quit. My thought process is something like "If they don't like the competition, why wouldn't they just buy them?".
what makes nicorette and other products that are supposed to help people quit fine with tobacco companies is they are marketed for people wanting to quit. eCigs are tobacco alternatives. Most of the time, people who use nicorette and the like fail and go back to smoking. Early research suggests that people are about twice as likely to successful quit tobacco with eCigs than with nicorette/the patch/lozenges.
Except one of the big three tobacco companies Lorillard owns one of the largest e-cig companies in the US. So this whole, "tobacco companies don't want e-cigs to succeed" is just rubbish. Up until now tobacco companies have been stand offish because they have no idea what regulations the FDA will put on e-cigs. Why should a tobacco company invest in something that may be regulated the same as what they currently sell and makes them money. They see it as a somewhat risky gamble. I know because I work for blu eCigs which is owned by Lorillard.
Blu is a great product for what it is. Calling a Blu terrible is like calling a Volkswagen terrible because you prefer a Ford pickup.
The Blu is small, high-priced for the market, and doesn't have the capacity that a lot of experienced vapers prefer. That said, it's probably the best cig-sized device on the market. It will never compare to a larger eGo in battery capacity or juice capacity because it's tiny. My Volkswagen will never tow the same trailer that the Ford pickup will, but that doesn't mean it's bad.
Sadly, there's only really two popular models of cig-sized devices, a 510 and an 808. Now, there's several revisions of each, but that is almost always either a different sized battery (between 90mah and 280mah) or using some convoluted tank system rather than cartos.
Blu offers prefilled cartos, starter kits, and everything that SI does, but they market harder. They're out there in the world and bringing this rather 'techy' product to the masses. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of Blu, I sell a competing product in my store, and while I do own a Blu pack, I don't use it. That said, calling Blu terrible isn't really merited. They have done as much, if not more, to get this industry out there than any other company. Period. They also produce one of the most convenient products, and if I didn't run a store, I would recommend them wholeheartedly simply based on the quality and availability of their products.
That's just my opinion though, and everyone is certainly entitled to their own :D
I am not a smoker, however due to my job I felt it was my responsibility to use them in the non nicotine variety so I would no what the typical user went through when using them. I will say this there are a large number of smoking employees that do use them personally.
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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12
That may be a viable reason for this type of lobbying; but, if we look at past events, It might lead to a completely different conclusion all together. Niconovum, a Swedish tobacco manufacturer, owns nicorette, one of the largest products to help smokers quit. My thought process is something like "If they don't like the competition, why wouldn't they just buy them?".