My thoughts are that, if vaping were to go main stream, the form factor of mods would have to change in many ways.
Our current mods are all built around certain batteries and much too big. Just listen to the comments from those on the new member forum when they ask for advice.
Batteries would have to be integrated and rechargeable like a cell phone.
The most effective juice deliver system will not be feasible as it would be relatively expensive and easy to bugger up. Just look at dishwasher and laundry detergents. People don't want to measure. Instead, a cheap and user friendly system that uses disposable pre-filled parts will dominate.
There will be led lights as people need indicators that the thing is working.
The entire unit will need to be cheap enough to be disposable. Quality of build will come second to cost.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Oh, and the government will tax (at 16 billion percent) all of the consumables.
I believe that there will always be a market for the high end and specialised equipment but it will be niche. The bulk of the real innovation will be in the direction of reducing cost and simple cosmetic changes to the former factor.
My Banker Brain agrees with you 100% but my Dreamer Brain hopes that it won't be so.
Government will tax hardware at the normal rate and the juice will get the "nicotine tax" at "16 billion percent", like booze, or maybe not. What are the taxes on the patch, gum etc? Harm reduction; how do you tax harm reduction UNREASONABLY. [NTD: that could be either a question or a statement]
Cost reduction I get. The market would have the "iPhone" mods and the cheap flip phone mods.
I'm very interested in your rationale behind the concept of size and disposability. Size OK I see it but disposable in today's world. Aren't we not removing some of the uckiness from a government sanctioned addition?