vivo to launch a new sub-brand next year

Chinese smartphone makers love to create sub-brands to cater to different areas of the market - think Redmi, Poco, iQOO, Realme. And vivo is apparently working on its next sub-brand following iQOO.

The brand will be called Jovi, and if that sounds familiar it's because vivo has been using the name for its AI assistant and some other system apps. But now it looks like Jovi is all ready to grow up and become its own smartphone brand.

The information comes from records found in the GSMA database (that's the GSM Association, no relation to us by the way). These show three upcoming vivo devices that will be using the Jovi brand.

So, we have the Jovi V50 with the model number V2427, the Jovi V50 Lite 5G with the model number V2440, and the Jovi Y39 5G with the model number V2444.

Interestingly, the Jovi V50 and the upcoming vivo V50 share the same model number, as do the Jovi V50 Lite 5G and the vivo V50 Lite 5G. So it seems like Jovi will make its debut with simple rebrands of existing devices. We'd wager these will be offered under the Jovi name only in some markets.

Having said all of this, please do keep in mind that plans can change and nothing is really official until an announcement, even though the GSMA database is usually very reliable. vivo can however change its mind about launching the Jovi brand for phones, as it hasn't unveiled any of them yet.

Via