Is Apple Developing a Vape Pen?

Is Apple getting into the weed business, one might ask if they happened to come across its application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a “sublimator/vaporizer”?

Apple refers to its object as: “An apparatus for vaporization or sublimation of a substance…”

The application, with 22 claims and lots of detail, goes on to describe an apparatus built around a chamber with a heating element at the bottom, which sounds very much like a vape pen.

“The substance may be a solid precursor that is to be sublimated within a chamber, or it may be a liquid chemical that is to be vaporized in the chamber,” reads the application, made public on January 26 and reported by Silicon Beat.

What, pray tell, is the substance?

Although the application does not mention the nature of the substance to be vaporized, it does not require a wild imagination to speculate that Apple is looking into developing a device that could be used for the consumption of weed and THC extracts.

Why not?

With weed legal in 28 states for recreational and/or medical purposes, tech companies are chomping at the bit to get in on the action, AKA the “green revolution”—and we mean green paper, not green leaves.

And who chomps more at the bit than technology giant, off-shore producing and off-shore stashing of their billions in cash Apple Inc.?

With a valuation of $178 billion last year, why wouldn’t Apple invest in one of the country’s fastest growing industries?

There are numerous opportunities for tech companies to produce devices for pot consumption, especially for medical marijuana usage.

Silicon Beat said: “That Apple and weed could make for a lucrative match is unquestionable—the brand has world-class pull, and the company makes some awfully sleek devices. Whether Apple will go that route remains unknown outside the company.”

And if you’re thinking back to early 2015 when Apple blocked MassRoot’s weed-based app from its app store, don’t forget that Apple backed down after it received 10,000 emails.  A lot has changed since then.

Apple declared the app was a go, but only for users who—confirmed through geolocation—lived in legal marijuana states. That’s so Apple.