Tobacco company Philip Morris International will release a new Marlboro e-cigarette by the end of 2014, in hopes of cashing in on different options for smokers.
The product will reportedly use real tobacco, not artificial tar that can be found in other, standard cigarettes. E-cigarettes ignite at temperatures of up to 660 degrees Fahrenheit, while nestled inside an iQOS - the shallow, pen-like device that produces an odor resembling tobacco-flavored nicotine.
The e-cigs are expected to arrive in various cities throughout Japan and Italy, according to the Associated Press. Philip Morris also anticipates further expanding the novelty in 2015. The world's largest cigarette manufacturer hopes the move will increase its revenue to $700 million. Company officials said they aim to sell 30 billion devices, Domain-b.com reported.
In addition to adapting to the latest trends in smoking, Philip Morris' initiative for the "reduced-risk" item is one of the company's latest attempts to enhance these kinds of heating technologies since the 1990s, despite consumers showing low interest in the product.
During an investor day presentation on Thursday, Philip Morris CEO Andre Calantzopoulos stated that the cigarettes "represent a potential paradigm shift for the industry, public health and adult smokers."
A cigarette introduced by Philip Morris' competitor R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co, called the Eclipse, is one product that resembled this change.
"Smokers then considered Eclipse to be a very foreign, very different, very novel concept in smoking, where today, compared to electronic cigarettes, tobacco heating cigarettes are much more familiar," said J. Brice O'Brien, head of consumer marketing at Reynolds.
As cigarette innovations have progressed in the United States, Europe's new, stricter regulations on tobacco products have put them at a standstill on the continent, according to Reuters. This was due to Philip Morris' recent submission of documents to the English court asking the governing body to review guidelines listed in the European Union's Court of Justice Tobacco Products Directive such as visual and written health warnings on 65 percent of such packages.
