live Some people may have heard the name, but not too many have probably held a Vivo smartphone in their hands. On the one hand, this is not surprising, after all, devices from the brand have only been available in Germany for almost a year and a half. On the other hand, Vivo is one of the big players in the world and has long been a problem for Apple. But one after anonther.
Vivo Communication Technology C.Ltd. was founded in 2009 in Dongguang, China. The company belongs to the tech group BBK Electronics, which includes other smartphone brands such as Oppo, Realme, OnePlus and Iqoo. In 2016, BBK was already the fifth largest smartphone manufacturer in the world with a share of around ten percent. In 2017, with a world market share of 15 percent, seven percent of which came from Vivo, it even rose to number two. This has not changed in the past year either. With a total of 20.4 percent, divided 10.2 percent each between Vivo (fourth place with 38.7 million cell phones sold) and Oppo (fifth place; 38.4 million), BBK was ahead of Apple (15.5 percent ) and again the second largest manufacturer of smartphones worldwide behind Samsung (39 percent).
Football World Cup in Russia meant the breakthrough in Europe
Vivo has only been active on the European market since 2020. However, the company had already taken the first steps beyond the borders of China in 2014, at that time with the destination Thailand. Vivo first caught the attention of a broader global audience in 2018. That year, the brand became FIFA’s official smartphone partner at the World Cup in Russia. As a result, Vivo advertising was the focus of every TV broadcast. And that Vivo really knows how the game for market share works. This is shown by other collaborations, such as with Marvel Studios and the American professional basketball league, NBA.
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A cooperation that should also take Vivo smartphones to the top in the camera area is that with the German pioneer Zeiss. Among other things, Zeiss is a trendsetter for eyeglass lenses, photo lenses and binoculars and has been developing technologies for mobile imaging for premium smartphones together with Vivo since December 2020 as part of the Imaging Lab.
Technology top, sustainability poor
Vivo has just announced a flagship smartphone in China with the X80 Pro model. It is equipped with the V1+ imaging chip, which is said to provide “the performance and speed required for advanced photo and video functions”. And the brand’s first foldable smartphone, which was also developed in cooperation with Zeiss, is also on the horizon. They are particularly proud of the fact that the hinge, which is often something of an unintentional predetermined breaking point in foldable smartphones, survived the TÜV Rheinland marathon test with 300,000 opening and closing movements without any errors.
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But the Vivo smartphones, which have been on the market for a while, have also performed well in tests. “Connect” rated the V21 5G as “good” and certified the device as having “top endurance” and an “outstanding price-performance ratio”. The X60 Pro did even better, receiving a “Very Good” rating and placing it well ahead of much more expensive competitors such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 5G, the Oppo Find X2 Pro or the Sony Xperia Pro-I in the “Connect” leaderboard .
A 2017 sustainability report on smartphones, laptops and tablets by the environmental, nature and climate protection organization Greenpeace showed that things are not always plain sailing with Vivo either. At the time, Vivo only ranked an embarrassing 16th out of 17 companies evaluated.