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A recent article from market and investment news outlet Motley Fool highlights perhaps the most telling trend in the electronic cigarette and personal vaporizer market to date. It seems sales of models — the small e-cigs made to simulate the size and shape of traditional cigarettes — are slowing. Meanwhile, sales of larger, customizable devices (mods) are growing at about twice the rate of the rest of the e-cig market.

You can read the Motley Fool piece here.

Lorillard was the first of the major U.S.-based tobacco companies to buy into the e-cig market. It purchased Blu eCigs before many individuals in the industry had even heard of electronic cigarettes and has since made an aggressive push to get Blu products into every convenience store in the nation. This strategy has captured around 50% of model sales for the tobacco giant.

But during the first quarter of this year, their e-cig sales dropped by about 10.5% — roughly in line with a perceived industry-wide decline in model sales in the same period.

The culprit? Well, there are three to be sure. The first two are obvious.

First, there are massive campaigns against e-cigs at the hands of organizations like the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, and the American Lung Association. They hope to prevent a new smoking epidemic via an unproven technology, but mostly they appear to only misinform the public about the products.

The second culprit is good old-fashioned competition — which had to kick in at some point. With tobacco giants Altria and Reynolds American both jumping into the fray, the mostly unchecked market control Blu had is fading away.

But the last culprit — and easily the most interesting — is the mods market. Preliminary research into the e-cig market is finding that a great deal of users are moving from models to mods. This is good news whether you view e-cigs as cessation products or a business opportunity. It suggests that e-cigs have the capacity to change a smoker’s habits for the long term.

This is happening mostly because mods offer a customizable experience tailor-made to the tastes of a user. But it doesn’t hurt that they often require less frequent recharging, maintenance, and purchasing, and they tend to be much, much cheaper than models in the long run.

This could be very good news for the vaping hobbyist. The FDA’s recent attempts to structure regulation of electronic cigarettes have suggested that variety and innovation wouldn’t be supported aspects of the market. Companies are currently investing in protecting the models market — one mostly lacking in variety and innovation.

But if it becomes evident that mods may be a future source of reliable income, major companies may start investing in defending them too.