TALKING TECH

The humble vape could be one of this century’s most significant bits of tech

Duncan Bell looks at the underground giant that is the vaping industry, and the mixed feelings around it

iQOS is like the Apple of vapes, with swanky shops and an ultraslick product

Take a walk down the high street of any small town in the UK and you’ll see the same things. There’ll be charity shops, a pub or two, a branch of Greggs and a vape shop, probably called ‘The Vape Shop’.

Go to a bigger town and it’s much the same, but the vape shop will be called something more pretentious, such as ‘Tokyo Mist’.

If you don’t vape, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s a rather fringe activity but it’s not. I’d liken it to heavy metal – millions of Britons enjoy ‘the metal’ but if you’re not into it, you might assume it’s just a small cult thing, like badminton or the Labour Party.

The reason I know this is I have been to a few vaping events this month, both, not coincidentally, organised by massive cigarette brands – British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International.

One of them was at the top of London’s Gherkin building and the other featured a performance by Wyclef Jean out of The Fugees. And if that wasn’t evidence enough of how much money there is in the vaping market, the figures bandied about were: this is a 100 billion dollar industry, and little wonder. Vaping’s mix of technology, ‘wellness’, social factors, megamarketing and massive, fruity clouds of vapour make it a perfect 21st century business.

Smoke and mirrors

Vaping is actually a range of sub-cultures. It goes from people billowing out massive clouds of scented vapour from steam-punk vape pipes, to people using stylish, slickly branded, cigarette replacement products from the likes of Philip

Morris

International and BAT.

You could compare the vape market to smartphones. And in fact, I will, now. Philip Morris’ iQOS is taking an Apple-like approach with swanky shops and a more exclusive, ultra-slick product. BAT’s Vype is a little Samsungesque, being similar to iQOS but more widely promoted and a little less self-consciously ‘premium’. Silicon Valley-backed newcomer Juul is a OnePlus-style ‘disruptor’, and the other brands are largely mid-priced Android phones.

In one way, the vape is actually a more significant and benign slab o’ tech than the smartphone. It will save millions of lives over the coming decades. Although the irony is that this will happen while vapes remain widely disliked.

Nobody is able to claim that vapes are completely safe, but for sure they are a lot less likely to kill you than cigarettes. As people switch from smoking to vaping, the health benefits will be statistically immense. Millions will live longer.

The reason that vapes will still be widely disliked, however, is that if people stopped habitually sucking on any nicotine-based product at all, the health benefits would be even greater.

Of course, it also rankles that this is being driven by the likes of Philip Morris and BAT. While it is nice that they have decided to stop killing their client base, it’s hard to see their motives as entirely altruistic.

They will tell you that vapes are aimed purely at former smokers, as a way to help them quit. However, followed to its logical conclusion that would mean no more customers for either brand, within a generation. Now, call me Mister Cynical if you will, but I don’t think PMI and BAT are then going to go, ‘ Woohoo, mission accomplished. We can shut up shop forever now.’ But I guess time will tell.

Clearly, even if the risks to health are greatly reduced by vaping, compared to smoking, we are still talking about selling a literally addictive product. Because vapes are a tech product there are also regular upgrades to be bought; newer and shinier vapes, with apps.

However, I think you have to be realistic about how people can be helped, and any positive outcome is worth celebrating. That’s why, grudgingly, I welcome the arrival of vape shops in every town, and the late-life conversion of former cigarette brands to the path of (comparative) wellness.