Netbook World Summit in Paris Today.

As screen sizes and weights increase, the netbook products drift further and further away from the mobility sector. The number of sub-1KG devices has almost dried up. Despite that, the netbook sector remains an interesting one in terms of technology (screen, platform, connectivity, operating system) and business models so anyone interested in small, productive computers should be keeping an eye one what’s going on in the netbook world. Will ARM-based ‘smart’ netbooks and mini laptops move into the space? If so, will they remain productivity-focused or are we going to end up with a bunch of toys on the shelf that are no good to anyone that actually wants to get some work done? Will the Pine-Trail platform offer an option for ultra mobile PC manufacturers or does Menlow remain the only choice? Will OEMs continue to use the Menlow platform for extra efficiency? What OS do OEMs see as the ‘best fit’? How will low-cost multi-core ARM platforms impact the market. Will Android or ChromeOS become a productivity platform?

I should be at the Netbook World Summit in Paris today but I’m not so instead, I’m following our MeetMobility podcast partner  @sascha_p who’s MC’ing the event. I’m also following the keyword ‘nws09′ on Twitter. There’s currently no live stream but the session are being recorded so we hope to have video to show later.

The live twitter stream is shown below. (Auto-updating)