The development of mobile internet will explode when some smartphones are available at prices less than 1,000 yuan, Kai-Fu Lee, the chairman and CEO of Innovation Works, said in a speech Friday at the Iresearch Annual Forum in Beijing.

Lee expects to see smartphones at prices lower than 1,000 yuan in the next few months.

The other two drivers behind mobile internet development are the more direct and effective distribution channels, cheaper expenses and more convenient payment methods, Lee said.

Mobile internet will develop in three phases: first in technical equipment, then in entertainment and socialization, and finally in advanced applications. The internet for personal computers developed this way, and so will the mobile internet, Lee said.

Lee quit Google and launched a venture business platform called Innovation Works in September 2010.