China Mobile hits right button

China Mobile, the world's largest mobile carrier by subscribers, expects to see booming demand for smartphones in the next few years, a senior company official said.

Bill Huang, general manager of China Mobile's research institute, said the firm sees smartphone sales growing in "double digits" in coming years, at least two-to-three times faster than other phone sales.

"Over next three-to-five years, 50 percent of our users will migrate to smartphones," Huang said. He said currently about 10 percent of the company's clients use smartphones.