Hanover, Germany  - It's that geeky time of the year, as the world's biggest three computing, mobiles and digital fairs get "early adopters", as the industry calls them, excited about the latest trends in electronic devices.

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, tech writers went into raptures last month over the Palm Pre, a touch-screen phone, which - like the Apple iPhone - may one day turn us into a species that commands computers by twisting and flicking our fingers.

While humans have been writing with keyboards for 135 years and clicking with a mouse for 25 years, the idea of pinching to zoom in and out of images is still new enough to be surprising to many users.

A month after the CES, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, brought into sharper focus how hand-held computers - called "smart" phones, but mini-computers to all intents and purposes - have adopted many of the tricks of their bigger laptop cousins.

Among key innovations announced there was the introduction of full-scale Adobe Flash games and movies to handheld screens.

And in March, the last of the big fairs, CeBIT in Hanover, Germany, is expected to highlight another digital best-seller, the tiny, stripped-down notebook computers that go by the name of netbooks.

CeBIT has evolved into more of a business than a consumer fair, with vast pavilions of computer parts and business software, but a few products of wider interest usually catch the eye.

IDC, a US market research company, points out that 3.6 million netbooks were sold in fourth quarter 2008 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, already making up one fifth of portable computers sold. It predicted double-digit growth this year in netbook sales.

Netbooks lack DVD drives, and sometimes even traditional hard drives. They are small, use minimal battery power, and are designed to be used hooked up to the internet most of the time.

Asus, the Taiwanese company that was the first big netbook maker, has promised a "touch" netbook, the T91, at CeBIT which brings a lot of the glamour of the Palm Pre and the iPhone to the netbook class.

There is no mistaking the trend.

Just as with the newest phones, users will be able to zoom and scroll by flicking their fingers over this netbook's touch screen. The Asus Eee PC Touch T91, weighing less than 1 kilogram, will go on sale in Europe in the second quarter, an executive said in Hamburg.

If that sounds as if lower-end computers are becoming more phone- like, the phone companies are not denying it. In fact some are trying to expand their sales of this type of simple, go-anywhere computer.

German wireless group T-Mobile says it will be selling a HP Compaq netbook in Germany this year for under 400 euros, less than the price of many phones. Lower-priced netbooks lack those fancy touch-screens, but the price could be compelling.

Since T-Mobile often gives away phones to customers who sign up to 24-month calling plans, "free" netbooks could possibly be in prospect in some countries.

Of course the customer ends up paying for the "giveway" in monthly instalments, but many will find this irresistible. (dpa)