Is the vape industry kind of died off in the past few months? It seems no good devices are getting released and YouTubers make videos reviewing things less frequently.
It’s not like there isn’t room to grow. Yes, we’re at the best point in vaping history in terms of how advanced everything is, but that doesn’t mean we’re at the pinnacle point. I think there’s so much more to achieve and do in terms of innovation.
A lot of the same shit in different clothes
Some companies straight up put the same chip in 5 products in a row with no changes and still get sales. It’s kind of annoying. People need to remind themselves of that when the next new hotness drops.
Also, what’s up with pod systems? I’m so sick of them.
Don’t get me wrong, I completely get why they got popular. And I completely encourage people to buy whatever suits their needs and preferences. But its something that’s being pushed into everyone’s faces lately. Every famous company has some sort of pod system by now and some companies have multiple pod systems already.
And there’s no innovation in that – it’s all just a different shape and battery size + a proprietary coil that is often expensive. In my opinion, it acts as the consumables of printers – cheap to buy a device but expensive to longterm maintain.
To some of you in advanced countries this might not be an issue but for someone who doesn’t live in a first world country proprietary, coils are far more expensive than an RDA with a coil and cotton you replace yourself.
There’s a few exceptions I make to pod systems that I consider innovative, some pod is made like a watch worn on the wrist, or some pod is made with some function of counting footsteps or with Bluetooth. However, those innovations looks useless to the vapers nowadays. Who cares about the footsteps when vaping?
Those quirky pod systems with strange functions are different but with no surprise or shining points at all.
I use a pod system myself. However, I’m very interested in the vape world and it just bothers me that nothing new is happening.
Its a big mess with youtube demonetizing vape related videos
I love watching vape-related videos on youtube.
It’s also a mess that many big youtubers are sticking to reviewing pod systems and I don’t understand why. It’s been straight up months.
I can’t be the only one tired from this, right? I mean, 2019 has basically been primarily pod systems. It’s kind of annoying.
As for vape video reviews, it’s hard for most reviewers to review vape items when it’s the same clone of a clone of the very first like it. You can only say the exact same thing so many times before you’re like, “Fuck it”. I mean, I have watched several vape reviewers and they’re like, “What do you want us to say about this item that we haven’t said about the last 5 that have come out. It’s the same damn item, just with a different brand name”.
Some vape reviewers have started sending items back to the companies that send them because they don’t want to review another clone, no matter how much the company is willing to pay them.
Youtube marketing goes dark and hard for many vape manufacturers worldwide. It’s a vape industry common problem at the moment.
JUUL’s popularity
It’s a weird business. I feel like this all started due to JUUL’s popularity. Companies wanted to profit off the trendiness and it eventually forced other companies to produce pod systems or go out of business due to low sales.
If you want something made in the US, or otherwise not made in China, you’re going to be spending a lot of money. Otherwise you’re buying from China. And as China (contrary to popular belief) is actually more of a Capitalist state than the US is, all they care about is sales and profits… and Pods are where it’s at right now.
The kind of innovation on a chipset thing is not near where the market is, or where it’s headed.
A big drop off in people who view vaping as a hobby
Someone owns a vape business in the UK denoted that, “Even though trade is good, the tone of interactions in the shops and customer type has changed over the last year or so. There seems to have been a big drop off in people who view vaping as a hobby. We probably sell 5 MTL kits / pod systems for every sub ohm setup and rebuildable sales are down by more than 50%. The new demographic is older and see vaping more for its function than a community based thing. It’s a shame because the hobbiest / community vibe used to be awesome and it was cool seeing how hyped people would be when we brought in the latest mod or dripper, but I got into this because I believe in the product as a harm reduction tool, and our sales data is showing more new start customers (and a higher retention rate) than ever before. I think we’ve just entered the next step in the industries evolution, vaping has been fully accepted by society and it’s doing its job of killing off the combustible tobacco industry.”
Pods are good, they’re accessible to people who just don’t want to fuck with up/down buttons and wattage and stuff
All people want is convenience. Look at the responses here. The majority of vapers don’t give a fuck about changing their wattages, wrapping perfect coils, MTL vs DTL, etc… they just want some nicotine in a pod that they can get quickly, conveniently, and cheaper than an analog cigarette.
Some people hold supplementary opinions that, ” They’re the modern equivalent of the ancient cigalike, just way less sucky. Much like how a 2019 Hyundai Prolapse looks pretty much like a 2019 Kia Shart or 2019 Ford Stercus, shit is all getting a bit samey because it’s all either converging into designs that just work well or because manufacturers are just copying each other.”
The vape industry is not dying off but has left the hobby stage and entered another advanced stage accepted by the major society
It’s actually a good thing that the pace has calmed its tits a little because a market that’s constantly bringing out wacky new shit every month is an unstable one. In an unstable, constantly changing market, individual products have much shorter lifecycles, and short lifecycles mean post-purchase support tapers off rapidly because manufacturers have already moved on to their next big thing and expect you to trade up, which ends up just being wasteful and making the Indian cry harder. This also means QC and availability for consumables takes a shit, you can’t rely on your shit to last, and you’re gonna perpetually be wondering if you’re missing out on the new hotness. Manufacturers actively foster that because they depend on the churn to survive in a cutthroat market.
Conclusion
The vape industry is not dying off but embracing a new peak, it keeps growing steadily for over 5 years. The statistics from Google Trend also proves it.
