iQOO may be bringing an even more affordable smartphone than the iQOO Z9X, priced at ₹12,999 onwards.
iQOO's focus remains authenticity, if that is being met, price point doesn't matter, Marya told us.
iQOO now has a million-member strong community.
iQOO is a brand that offers exceptional price-to-performance ratio to its users. The brand has constantly swept our Digit Zero1 Awards for the past two years, bagging 5 awards in 2023’s Zero1 Awards. This year, the brand has brought its performance and gaming traits to a whole new segment of under Rs 15,000. Based on rumours, we can see even cheaper options from the brand this year.
Now, based on the brand’s plans for the year, I had a conversation with iQOO India’s CEO, Nipun Marya, who has led the company to a new height, making it a staple among the Gen-Z mobile gamers. This is not my first interview with Marya. We have had chats on several topics in the past, but given how the market has changed in the last year or so, and with newer trends like AI and community, it was time to have another chat with the man who is scooping up all the Digit Zero1 Awards for the past two years. Here’s how it went:
About iQOO’s plans to make iQOO’s performance and gaming-centric smartphones even more accessible, possibly with a sub-Rs 10,000 device from the brand.
With my first question addressing the buzz around the tech market, Mr Marya told us that the key focus for iQOO is being true to the consumers and true to the brand promise. While the brand promise has always been that iQOO will be the best performance phone in the segment. And for consumers, gaming and multitasking is what they want.
Marya said that as long as the company stays true to these two promises, they can of course, look into getting into another segment, regardless of the price point.
On keeping up with new competition in the budget gaming segment and maintaining the lead in this GenZ mobile gamer market.
With a slight chuckle (maybe because he figured I was talking about Infinix as the competition), Mr Marya told me that he will talk about this in two parts. First one being that in the smartphone world, there are only a handful of brands are people’s first choice when it comes to being the best at one particular thing. For example, for a camera, there are only a handful of brands that one can think of that are doing it right. Upon establishing that iQOO is one of those brands that are getting the performance and gaming core right, Marya told me the second part of the answer. He said that it is not about if one is trying to enter a certain category. It is much more about how sincerely, authentically, and consistently you can deliver on that promise. “iQOO’s DNA is performance. I think consumers today are also very smart and they see through what is real strategy and what is a tactic.”
He went on to explain, “if there is a real strategy like ours, where authenticity runs in our products, our communications, in our on-ground efforts, and in our community initiatives. Anything and everything we do is clearly seen as a common thread. Therefore, I feel very confident about iQOO’s position that we are able to build today. We will continue strengthen this for the medium terms and long term as well.”
On iQOO’s strong community. On how it helps in terms of the product development and in terms of enhancing sales.
Before jumping into his answer, Marya first corrected me by saying that a community, for him, is not a marketing exercise. “For iQOO, community is not a marketing thing, for us, it’s a business thing. It is one of the fundamental pillars on how iQOO is being built.”
Nipun further explained that iQOO looks at community with similar importance to things like distribution channels or product strategy. “I wouldn’t say we give the same amount of time, but we give it similar importance because it is a part of the fundamental tenet of iQOO.” He further said that he says so because since the last two years that iQOO has been creating a community, the brand’s focus has always been on authenticity.
“We started with a beta test with 500 members. Today we have crossed 1 million members in the iQOO community. Why are they engaging with us? Because they find value in what we offer them. Be it through the community platform, be it through the on-ground events we do, be it an exclusive sneak-peak for an upcoming device.”
He also mentioned how iQOO includes community in a lot of its decision-making. This is where I learnt about “Community Moderators” who are members of the community that give the brand feedback about an upcoming product or even help with marketing. “There are so many things that we do with our community. The fundamental concept there is co-creation and we believe iQOO is being built with a bottom-up approach. When you build bottom-up, you keep your ears to the ground listening to what the community is saying becomes of paramount importance.”
On the “bottom-up” approach that iQOO is taking to build its brand
Referring to a report from Vogue Business, Marya said that when it comes to Gen-Z, the kind of brands Gen-Z likes to be associated with have two traits. First, these brands are inspirational. Second, these brands were community driven.
“I got to know about this report a couple of months back, but it further validates our thinking of how we’re also building iQOO.” On what keeps pulling repeat users back to iQOO smartphones.
Marya began this answer by saying “delivery more than promise.” “I think the promise is anyways high, but I think the delivery is higher. For our consumers, what they really like is substance. Less of noise and more of substance. I also think iQOO is for people who know their tech, especially right now. This is one reason I believe people come back to iQOO,” he said.
On if the Vivo’s V-series chip and iQOO’s Q-series of computing chips are the same.
During my conversation with Marya, I had to obviously ask about the similarities between the Vivo’s ISP chips in the V-series and iQOO’s Q-series chips. If these are the same chips or if they are being developed independently.
To this, Marya said these two chips are obviously proprietary Vivo technology. But, he said that the focus for both is different. For Vivo, it is enhancing the camera capabilities, and for iQOO it is gaming.
He said that he is not aware if there is any technology overlap happening in the backend. “But at the level which customers experience these technologies, in most cases the experience is two very different use cases.
On if Vivo’s collaboration with Zeiss will ever make it to iQOO smartphones.
When asked about if we will see a Zeiss-branded camera on an iQOO smartphone, Marya said that it looks difficult. The reason? He said that this is also about the promise of the brand and authenticity.
“Vivo stands for camera-first. Therefore, their promise is that we will give the best camera. Hence, Zeiss makes so much sense. For us, it is performance-first. Therefore, a collaboration like the one we have with BMW M-Motorsport makes more sense since even in BMW Group, the M-motorsport stands for the best performance,” he said.
On what iQOO is doing with the current AI trend.
To this, Marya said that a lot of people are asking this question. “To this, I keep saying that AI has become a common lingo maybe in the last 6 months or so, but AI in practice has been there for much longer. It is now that everyone has warmed up to AI, especially in common parlance. But if you look at it, AI has been integral to many things like camera, gaming, and a lot of other things.”
He also said that he believes that in tech, the marketing jargons become common terminology, weather there is real substance or not, further giving the example of the “Metaverse” wave that we saw in the last couple of years. “For AI, it has been the other way around. Practice has happened first and in common terminology its coming in much later.”
“AI has been and will continue to be an integral part of whatever we are doing here at iQOO,” Marya said.
He also explained my doubt about if iQOO will bring AI into its marketing language. Marya explained that now customers are seeking AI in their products. And while it was still doing its thing in the backend and we were giving the experience with either the camera or gaming. “And now if a consumer asks for AI features up front, it is our job as marketers to tell them that yes, your phone is equipped with AI. So yes, if it means that some change needs to be done in the communication, it should be done.”
On strategy on bringing innovation in a more affordable segment.
On this, he said that the brand believes that innovation can happen at every price point. Pointing out the misconception in the market that innovation is limited to flagship offerings, Marya told me that while yes, most of the innovation happens in the top-end, it still doesn’t limit anyone to only do flagships. “As recent as our iQOO Z9X, which is the first smartphone with a 6,000mAh battery with 7.9mm thickness and IP64 and with so many other industry-first features, just proves that innovation can happen across price points,” he said. Marya also noted the example of the iQOO Neo series and the iQOO 12, which has offered much more than the competition to the users.
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