RE:Mega Deal TBA with Poda (Blackout period at this moment)silence from Ryan can be either positive or negative. One postiive is what you highighted and I truly hope you are right and that is the case. That being said; PODA competitive advantage over its competiton was the closed end stick to avoid having to clean the device. PM has eliminated this advantage. They can still market that they have patents on the only closed end stick but they can't claim this as a advantage over all of its competitors now as it relates to smokers/non-smokers. It simply becomes, does PODA offer a better user experience to its competitors for this market? That requires time and a lot of marketing dollars to address and convince consumers. Hence, what the test launch with ESON was for.
Now if PM doesn't want to stay out of the US market for a year they either fight the infringement (which they don't seem to keen on doing and will take time, so not an option), modify their device so it doesn't infringe (they have the expertise to do that) or simply white label from PODA and start selling (quickest path).
I do think a positive for PODA is that they've created a number of different divisions in their company to target other markets, whether that's Therapeutics, Alternatives, CBD, THC etc. Doesn't seem companies like PM are interested in tackling this area yet. This is where PODA can make some real headways with its patents and closed end stick because of the cleaning requirements.