E-Cigarette: A Disruptive Technology?

choi

Lydia DePillis, Big Tobacco Admits Defeat, Will Develop E-Cigarettes. Washington Post, Nov 22, 2013 (blog).
www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/won ... velop-e-cigarettes/

Quote:

"A couple days ago, the tobacco giant Philip Morris International announced a decision it didn't think it would have to make: It was finally getting into the e-cigarette business, after pooh-poohing the product as recently as July. * * * Why would the world's biggest tobacco company spend $100 million to accelerate the availability of a product that could destroy the business it's been in for 160 years? The basic answer is, it's already happening. And self-disruption is big tobacco's best chance to survive, even in a different form, for much further down the road.

“‘e-cigarette repeat purchases remain surprisingly low,’ read one slide [from the company’s presentation]. ‘Slower nicotine delivery profile and weak taste explain limited user satisfaction.’

Note: “Philip Morris USA — the division that Altria kept after spinning off Philip Morris International in 2008 — also dragged its feet on introducing e-cigarettes. But it's facing a pretty cold reality: Fewer Americans are smoking than ever before, according to Gallup, and those who still do are smoking less.”
(a) Altria
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altria
("The onset of 'rebranding' of Philip Morris Companies to Altria took place in 2003 * * * The name 'Altria' is claimed to come from the Latin word for 'high' and was part of a trend of companies rebranding to names that previously did not exist * * * linguist Steven Pinker suggests that in fact the name is an 'egregious example' of phonesthesia - with the company attempting to 'switch its image from bad people who sell addictive carcinogens to a place or state marked by altruism and other lofty values'")
(i) My research shows “altria” is no Latin word. In fact, there is no such word anytime and anywhere.
(ii) altruism (n; mid 19th century: from French altruisme, from Italian altrui 'somebody else', from Latin alteri huic 'to this other')
Oxford Dictionaries
http://www.oxforddictionaries.co ... an_english/altruism

(b) Philip Morris (tobacconist)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Morris_(tobacconist)