Maybe a hard look should be taken at what really makes this such a forever niche market?
I feel like there might be a big factor contributing to the industry's rut that isn't being talked about. The type of portables that would convince more herb smokers to switch to herb vaping, are the very portables that are both out of reach currently, and "unappealing" to many vapers to begin with. I'm talking about unregulated vapes like the Lil Bud and Milaana, and just the general concept of an unregulated dry herb vape.
Smokers' biggest gripe with vaping is that it's "not potent enough" or "too gentle and doesn't get me high". So right off the bat, the device produces a sense of need. What if instead, the device fulfills the combustion desire up front, and then things can be fine-tuned to achieve big clouds and effects without burning?
The smokers who are the biggest holdouts are the ones who need potent vaping experiences the most, and it's not happening. To have a shot at converting them they NEED to get into vaping by accidentally combusting and then dial it down from there. Instead whats happening is they start out with a weak device or maybe a decent one that doesn't have the ability to combust, and it gives the illusion that there is no way to dial it up, so they're like "screw this, smoking is better". These people need to start out with something unregulated, something portable that's powerful as a desktop and something where they can just grab a pinch of ground bud with their fingers and drop it in and it's ready to go (this tech is already available). that way it's as simple to prep as a smoking method, and the worst case scenario is that they accidentally combust. Except the smoker doesn't view that as a worst case scenario, they view it as normal. Then they need to be taught that a potent experience without combustion IS possible, and with this powerful unregulated vape we're going to get there. THAT would convince more of them to switch.
Except for the part where the price point of those devices completely prevents this from happening. Nevermind. Oh, and throw in the fact that there's a stigma and safety issue around unregulated boxmods, and so the idea of unregulated anything has the illusion of being a bad idea (nevermind that it's a very nuanced engineering topic - but who the hell knows that? Lol)...I feel like this a problem flying under the radar that has sabotaged the scene and these types of breakthrough moments that would facilitate wider vaping adoption just aren't economically possible.
)... I am wondering why there is no good portable device which works like this carts but with flower rosin... 
