Unnamed industry sources cited by DigiTimes suggest that China’s OPPO and Xiaomi are facing competition from their own sub-brands. The phone manufacturers, in an attempt to grab market share and sell more phones have launched sub-brands in order to sell smartphones with competitive specifications at a lower price point under their new brands.

OPPO’s Realme recently announced the Realme X (image above), with notable specs at crazy low price points starting at $220. Xiaomi’s Redmi will soon unveil the Redmi K20 to compete with the Realme X, and, at the same time, indirectly, with Xiaomi phones. The K20 is expected to feature a 6.39-inch AMOLED display, powerful Snapdragon 855 processor, as well as a triple-camera setup of 48MP + 16MP + 8MP shooters, at a price point which could be as low as $220.

Sales channels for Xiaomi’s Mi and Redmi lineups are heavily overlapped, which could undermine the sales of the Mi models — DigiTimes

At the same time, the Realme X could undermine OPPO’s efforts to promote and sell its new Realme line-up of smartphones, among which there are also models running on the same Snapdragon 710 processor.