iQOO, Vivo's Sub-Brand Announced, Aiming At The Premium Phone Segment

Vivo has just announced a new sub-brand through the Chinese social network Weibo. The new brand name, iQOO, was revealed by Vivo’s official account to be a phone making company. But considering the fact that Vivo is already a notorious phone maker with vast offerings of handsets from every possible price point, from budget to flagship. We have good reasons to believe that the company’s setting it sight into entering the premium market through the gateway being iQOO.

The Announcement

The sub-brand was introduced by Vivo about a week ago through a Weibo post with a simple line: "Hello, this is iQOO." The message was posted through iQOO’s main account, and Vivo simply reposted it to boost the signal. iQOO’s Weibo account also had in its description that it belongs to ‘Vivo Mobile Communication Co. Ltd.’. But it’s very likely that this new company will operate quite independently from the shadow of its parent. Similar to the way Xiaomi’s Redmi and Oppo’s Realme are.

Information about this new company is still relatively scarce. We have no idea who the staffs behind iQOO are, and what they’re going to do to make their own impact on the mobile market. But one thing for certain is that Vivo’s fans in China and worldwide are blowing up with speculations.

Best Guesses

The current price range of Vivo’s phones on the market is from 1,000 Yuan (about $147) to as high as 4,000 Yuan (about $590). What we (and apparently everyone else) are thinking is that this is a way for Vivo to sell premium handsets from 5,000 Yuan ($758) and above.

Vivo has established a name for itself as being the more affordable phone makers out there with great build quality and performance. It’d lose that title if it was to directly sell premium phones with that brand name. Through the gateway being iQOO, Vivo can reap the benefits of selling to the premium market, at the same time, retaining the primary brand’s affordable image.

But for now, though, like we said: We still don’t know what kind of smartphones will iQOO release.

A Possible Date

The company’s webpage, iQOO.com, has been activated. But no information regarding the company has been uploaded just yet. The site’s filled with generic information about Vivo, only. Though we can expect either Vivo or iQOO will host a conference soon to disclose the aim, directives, and projects of the company soon.

Judging from the mystical picture that the company uploaded along with its Weibo post. They might be hinting at a futuristic design with cutting-edge technology.

We have also found out that Vivo has been actively recruiting talents for iQOO throughout the second half of 2018 on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Notably, the location that recruitment took place was in Indonesia. This means that iQOO is possibly a global brand.

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019 is fast approaching, and possibly, Vivo may take this stage to announce iQOO to the world. Stay tuned.