Just last year, we saw Oppo launching a new sub-brand, Realme, which was eventually made completely independent. Then we had Poco from Xiaomi. Before that, there was Honor, which started as an online-only sub-brand of Huawei. Gionee too tried its luck with a sub-brand called IUNI which didn’t go a long way. It’s expected that Vivo will iQOO like an independent company, but it’s all confusing anyway with Vivo itself being part of BBK electronics which is the parent company of other biggies like Oppo and OnePlus. The above image was posted on Weibo from the “iQOO mobile phone” account which was later reposted by Vivo with a comment saying “Welcome new friends in the new year (sic)”. In fact, the registration details of iqoo.com clearly mention that Vivo is the official owner of the domain. It’s still not clear how Vivo plans to position the iQOO brand. While Xiaomi, Huawei, and Oppo went with “budget” model for their respective sub-brands Poco, Honor and Realme, some reports indicate that iQOO will be more like a premium brand instead. Or say gaming specific brand? With the official unveiling of the new sub-brand, we can expect the actual iQOO smartphone launches sometime soon in China. It remains to be seen if iQOO makes it out of China to other markets like India. Vivo is expected to showcase their new APEX 2019 smartphone later this month at Barcelona during the Mobile World Congress, but we need to wait and see if iQOO gets some booth-space as well. It’s quite possible that the new APEX 2019 powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 with literally no ports and buttons might get launched under the iQOO brand considering the rumors of iQOO being the premium avatar of Vivo phones.
