Chinese smartphone maker Vivo has just announced its new sub-brand called iQOO. On the company’s Weibo account, Vivo posted a futuristic teaser along with the caption “Hello, this is iQOO.”
Nobody knows for sure what “iQOO” really means, but the new sub-brand asked the question, “Do you know how to read iQOO?” which generated thousands of comments. No further details were provided.
Launching sub-brands is nothing new. Several Chinese smartphone manufacturers such as Huawei and OPPO have found success in creating their own sub-brands. Huawei launched Honor in 2013 and the latter is now outselling its parent company in certain markets. OPPO followed suit with Realme which it launched only last year. Xiaomi has the Redmi sub-brand which is also fast gaining popularity in developing countries like India.
Reports from China say that iQOO will position itself as a premium brand and sell smartphones in the $700 (P35,000) range. There’s no official confirmation yet, however. There’s also no word if iQOO smartphones will eventually make their way out of China and into foreign markets. iQOO will most likely launch new smartphones in the first or second quarter of 2019.
In preparation for its official launch, Vivo has registered the domain name iqoo.com, although the website is not yet live. A quick WHOIS lookup of the domain shows the registrant as “Zhang Frank” with the organization “vivo Mobile Communication Co., Ltd.” This pretty much confirms that iQOO is in the works.
Let’s just wait and see what iQOO will be all about, and what its correct pronunciation would be.
