More and more of my time is spent discussing and researching emerging tobacco products.
I credit two readers because it was Mark Butcher's enthusiasm for PMI's iQOS device and Juliette Tworsey's similar passion for Ploom, another heat-not-burn product (now owned by JTI), that encouraged me to delve a little deeper.
PMI has a useful guide to iQOS here. The first generation heat stick (Platform 1) isn't on sale in Britain (as far as I know) but Mark is convinced it would be popular with smokers here.
Like a lot of e-cigarettes it looks a bit clunky to me but I'm not the target market. What's interesting is that the Platform 2 device (described by PMI as being at "an earlier stage of development than Platform 1") looks just like a cigarette.
My gut feeling – based on no research whatsoever – is that if hundreds of millions of smokers worldwide are to switch to vaping (e-cigarettes or HNB products) the device has to be as simple to use as a combustible cigarette.
I base this on the observation that the main reason cigarettes were so popular in the 20th century was convenience.
Compare cigarettes to pipe-smoking. The late Lord Harris, chairman of Forest for 20 years until his death in 2006, was an enthusiastic pipe smoker. Then, in his early Eighties, he suddenly gave up.
I won't go into the circumstances (it was nothing to do with health) but the principal reason was the amount of paraphernalia he had to carry around – his pipe (or pipes), tobacco pouch, pipe cleaners, lighter and so on.
Throughout the 20th century I suspect many pipe smokers quit for the same reason, with many switching to cigarettes.
Like a pipe, cigars generally take far longer to smoke than a cigarette so, leaving aside the cost, cigarettes were more convenient than cigars as well.
My guess is the majority of smokers will only switch to vaping if the device matches the convenience of cigarettes and offers a similar tobacco-related experience.
Second generation e-cigs are the pipes of the 21st century; vape shops are like specialist tobacconists. The niche will hopefully survive TPD and other insane regulations but it will never be mass market.
Truth is, a significant majority of smokers aren't attracted by the initial generations of e-cigarettes. The future, I believe, lies elsewhere. Will that be HNB? It's too early to say.
The reason I'm interested in HNB products is because, wearing my Forest hat, anything that offers a safer method of consuming tobacco ought to interest smokers, especially if it mimics the act of smoking and still involves tobacco.
I was encouraged therefore when it was reported that BAT is also entering the HNB market although I'm equally intrigued that a fourth company, Imperial Brands (formerly Imperial Tobacco), is said to be shunning "heating products".
From a consumer and media standpoint it creates a compelling narrative and it will be interesting to see what the future holds. BAT, for example, is also developing a hybrid product "that combines e-cigarette technology with fresh tobacco".
Of course there are enormous hurdles for emerging tobacco products to overcome, including opposition from politicians, public health campaigners and even some vapers whose reluctance to embrace HNB alongside e-cigarettes is rather sad.
Personally I like the fact that at least three tobacco companies are developing a new generation of tobacco products that could, perhaps, offer similar harm reduction benefits as e-cigarettes.
Even if the benefits aren't as significant as using e-cigs I welcome the additional choice they could provide.
The fact that HNB devices are genuine tobacco products, unlike e-cigarettes, counts in their favour. (Forest, after all, is an acronym for Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco.)
My personal view is that competition drives technology and innovation. As long as governments don't over-regulate any of these products (and others still to be invented) the long-term winner ought to be the consumer.
History of course shows that the best products don't always come out on top. Betamax famously lost the videotape format war to the inferior VHS. Likewise the 8-track cartridge lost out to the compact cassette, and so on.
I suspect something similar may happen with rival nicotine delivery systems. Commercially the most successful product won't necessarily be the best or most technologically advanced.
Quality matters, up to a point, but what matters most to consumers is cost and convenience.
In terms of risk, common sense suggests that HNB products will sit somewhere between combustibles and e-cigarettes but we won't know for some time.
The continuing appeal of combustibles for millions of smokers suggests they will balance the health risks of a product against other factors - pleasure, for example.
For that reason, even if they are not as 'safe' as e-cigarettes, HNB products may prove more attractive to smokers in the long run.
What HNB devices will provide, if regulations allow it, is even greater choice for smokers who want to cut down or quit or use a smokeless product when they're working or socialising in enclosed public spaces.
In Geneva, with the exception of fumoirs, smoking is banned in bars and restaurants. When I met him a few weeks ago, however, Mark Butcher was able to use his iQOS heat stick all evening without comment or complaint.
The biggest threat to HNB and other emerging products will probably be those whose ideological aversion to the tobacco industry and tobacco in general has defined an entire generation of public health campaigners.
The real breakthrough will come when governments stop hiding behind Article 53 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and engage openly with the industry in a full and frank discussion about all tobacco products - including HR and combustibles.
Their current refusal to do so suggests governments are more interested in political gamesmanship than public health.
That's the real scandal the media consistently overlooks.