Nippon Tobacco is the largest tobacco manufacturer in Japan, accounting for 60% of the Japanese tobacco market share, with the popularity of the new type of heat-not-burn tobacco, Nippon Tobacco has also developed the corresponding tobacco harm reduction product Plum, but under the impact of heat-not-burn equipment such as IQOS, Plum has lagged behind significantly. According to Nomura estimates, IQOS and Glo accounted for 71.8% and 20.1% of Japan's market share in 2018, respectively, while Plum was only 8.1%.
Plum's first generation, Plum TECH, was launched in 2016 and is priced at 3,000 yen. Strictly speaking, Plum TECH is a tobacco vapor product, which does not directly heat the tobacco roll like heat-not-burn equipment, but produces steam by heating the liquid in the smoke tube, and then produces the smoke flavor through its special tobacco capsule. Not suitable for users with a large smoking craving.
The exterior of the Plum TECH has a pen-like design, which is more suitable for young women due to its light taste and low smoke. The battery capacity is 610mAh, which can support 1 cigarette tube/5 tobacco capsules (about 25 cigarettes) when fully charged, and because its cigarette tube and tobacco capsules are consumables, Plum also adopts a matching solution to improve convenience, and the price of consumables (1 cigarette tube and 5 tobacco capsules) is 460 yen.
According to a survey conducted by Nippon Tobacco, 44% of Plum TECH users said they wanted to strengthen their sense of smoking. Therefore, in January 2019, Nippon launched two new products, Plum TECH and Plum S, Plum TECH is the same as the previous generation, it is a tobacco vapor product, compared with Plum tech that uses USB cable charging, Plum TECH has improved the charging port design, and its universal USB interface has better versatility, in addition, Plum TECH's tobacco capsule increases the amount of tobacco leaves, At the same time, the heating temperature has been increased by 10°C from the original 30°C, and the taste is richer, and it is currently priced at 4,980 yen.
According to the statistics of heat-not-burn patents announced by the China Intellectual Property Office, as of 2016, the number of heat-not-burn patents of Nippon is 15, and Plum S is a product that integrates heat-not-burn patents of Nippon, and it is also the first heat-not-burn e-cigarette in the true sense of Nitobacco.
Since the Plum S is an annular heating, the temperature spreads to the smoker, and the low heat utilization rate is the main disadvantage of annular heating. The heating temperature of Plum S is set to a lower 200°C, although it reduces the amount of material produced by the cracking of the special tobacco, and the taste is lighter. However, it is precisely because of the low heating temperature and small smoke volume of the Plum S that it is relatively suitable for indoor use.
As a new product, the Plum S is currently only available in 1 regular type and 2 cold smoke type cartridges, with fewer flavors. Due to the low heating temperature of the equipment, the ordinary type does not have a strong taste, while the cool smoke type adopts a cool formula and has a good throat sensation. Currently, the price of the Plum S is 7,980 yen, and the price of the cartridge is 480 yen.
