Hanover, Germany  - While a few eccentric products always grab the spotlight at CeBIT computing trade shows, the bread-and- butter devices of the annual expo in Germany are personal computers and laptops.

This year's March 3-8 CeBIT features California, the place where personal computing began, as special partner.

The German organizers say today's World Wide Web society, which they shorten to "webciety," will be a key theme.

They explain that the internet - like no other medium before it - permeates every area of our lives, changing the rules of business, education and public administration. A networked society needs to stay online in every room and out on the road.

The nifty little netbooks which have been selling like hot cakes since making a splash at the last CeBIT are the devices that live this dream: permanently connected to the internet via embedded UMTS, the fastest mobile-phone signal currently available.

"They are also ultra-lightweight and have long battery life," explained a salesman for Asus, the Taiwanese manufacturer which scored a big success last year with its simple little Eee range.

A netbook's battery life should be long enough for "all-day computing," defined by Asus as an eight-hour day without a recharge.

Gabriele Doerries, a spokeswoman for the CeBIT event company Deutsche Messe, says netbooks will be a defining product this year.

While these tiny computers grab all the attention, vendors have never completely given up on the idea that older internet users might prefer to surf the web using enormous flat-panel televisions.

A key reason for this is the discovery that middle-aged people retain an almost obsessive affinity with their TV sets. Oddly, neither the old nor young people are quite as TV-centred.

Klaus Boehm of the US-based consultancy firm Deloitte quotes from a recent international survey by his company.

Pollsters discovered for example 75 per cent of German baby boomers (the 44-60 age group) thought the TV, not the computer, was the most important device in their homes for hearing about the world outside.

The survey, "The State of Media Democracy," was conducted in five nations including the United States, Japan and Brazil.

Curiously, both mature people (over 60) and the young put a higher value on computers as the best way to stay informed.

As if to meet the needs of boomers, Asus has announced the Eee Keyboard, a wireless computer that uses a TV screen, due for release at the end of this year's second quarter.

The product, first disclosed at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this January in Las Vegas, has only a tiny 5-inch status display and is mainly a keyboard. Entertainment and web pages must be viewed on a television, connected to the device by wireless.

US maker Dell will be at CeBIT with netbooks such as the Inspiron Mini 9 and Mini 12, fitted out with Windows Vista and a built-in webcam, but also some beefier notebooks such as its new Studio XPS 16, which features a widescreen 16:9 display.

Last year's CeBIT had energy saving as a declared focus and organizers say "green information technology" is still a key selling point. Spokeswoman Doerries says manufacturers all over the fair will be boasting electricity-saving features.

Fujitsu Siemens Computers of Europe was proud last year of a monitor which completely eliminated electricity use while on standby, thanks to a relay in its power supply controlled from the computer.

Governments round the world are encouraging industry to eliminate the waste caused by home appliances that use power while idle.

The same technology will be available for the first time in a personal computer, the Esprimo Green PC, at this year's CeBIT, said Thomas Karg, marketing director for Germany of Fujitsu Siemens. This "zero-watt" computer will go on sale in Europe in mid-year.

Semiconductor company Intel will offer some light relief at the fair from the dreary standard look of all those notebooks.

It has announced a "case molding competition," where customizers can decorate the outsides of a range of high-end notebooks with anodized aluminium, spray paint, coloured lighting and the like.

The only rule: the notebook still has to work afterwards. (dpa)