Li has worked overseas for years and watched mobile hysteria consume young professionals. Smartphones from the likes of Samsung, Apple, HTC, Sony Ericsson and others are gobbled up as soon as they hit the market. Consumers are prepared to pay full price, he says, and will buy a new phone every year.

"They change phones like a fashion statement," Li says.

Smartphone owners in China also don't want to carry around an additional corporate phone. That would be like wearing two outfits, with the corporate one being totally outdated. Instead, they're accessing work data from new-fangled phones under emerging corporate policies known as BYOD, or bring-your-own-device. According to Li, BYOD in China is far ahead of BYOD in the United States.

In fact, the United States can learn some BYOD lessons from China.

Many U.S. companies take a narrow view of BYOD and don't support Android devices. The common refrain is that Android is too fragmented and too leaky a vessel to carry sensitive corporate data. The many flavors of Android also can lead to a managerial and native app development headache.