The History and Evolution of E-Cigarettes: When Did They First Appear?

E-cigarettes first entered the market in 2007, and since then they have gone through multiple stages of development. Earlier versions were designed to resemble ordinary cigarettes, cigars, pipes, pens, and even USB flash drives.

The latest generation features sleek, high-tech designs and may be either disposable or equipped with easy-to-recharge batteries.

The most popular is JUUL, a prefilled pod system containing nicotine salts that appeared in 2015 and quickly established itself as a leading e-cigarette product. JUUL remains the most popular reusable e-cigarette device, accounting for 51.49% of the reusable market share in June 2021. JUUL’s share of the overall e-cigarette market was 7.<>%.

“Copycat” products such as suorin Drop, myblu, and Vuse Alto followed JUUL’s high-tech design blueprint and its high nicotine delivery through nicotine salt e-liquid formulas. Because of the brand’s ubiquity, these devices are often generically referred to as “JUULs,” but they are also known as “pod mods” because the e-liquid is sold in separate disposable pods.

JUUL also inspired imitation devices specifically compatible with JUUL, including Eonsmoke and Vapor4Life, which offer similarly high nicotine delivery in sleek, discreet devices or in devices that use JUUL pods, or pods that can be used with JUUL devices.

Although prefilled pods or cartridges such as those used by JUUL remain the most popular device type, disposable e-cigarettes such as PUFF Bar are rapidly increasing in popularity. These devices heat a cartridge containing e-liquid, but are disposable and do not use prefilled pods.

During 2019-2020, disposable e-cigarette use among high school e-cigarette users increased by about 1,000% (from 2.4% to 26.5%), while use among middle school e-cigarette users increased by more than 400% (from 3.0% to 15.2%). E-cigarette sales data also reflected these trends: from August 2019 to May 2020, sales of disposable products nearly doubled, while sales of prefilled cartridge products fell from 89.4% to 80.2% and then to <>.<>%.

Puff Bar was the most popular disposable device, accounting for 51.24% of the disposable market share in March 2021, followed by Bidi Stick at <>%.

Disposable e-cigarette products such as puff Bar can still be sold in flavored varieties, and this exemption may be driving the growing popularity of disposable e-cigarettes.18 Because PuffBar is a disposable device, it is not subject to the FDA’s enforcement guidance on flavored e-cigarette products. PuffBar’s website promotes as many as 15 different flavors, including “Strawberry,” “Blueberry Ice,” and “Cool Mint” (see the “Marketing” section).

PuffBar claims that it began using synthetic nicotine in its products, creating uncertainty about its regulatory status.