This week I went to an annual press launch in London. Called PlayBite, it's not half as salacious as it sounds, just a group of companies that share the same PR company (also called Bite, you can see where they're going with this) exhibiting stuff.

There were a few gadgets coming out - mostly 'same stuff as before only smaller and faster' (which is the trend after you reach a certain age in this game) - but the interesting thing for me was the number of new Netbooks on the market. One exhibitor in particular told me they weren't getting any demand at all for notebooks because everyone was buying the lighter device.

So, does this mean the death of the traditional notebook? I kind of hope not. I like having a full-blown PC (or Mac in my case) with me when I'm out presenting because you can do other things, you don't get mobile data costs because you need to get at information you already own, you can do proper work.

And yet there are so many free access points on my travels that I do wonder whether I'm just being illogical and justifying a handsome-looking Mac laptop because, well, it's shiny, which gives me an emotional attachment to it but which doesn't actually deliver benefits other than image (and when you're 44, going grey and overweight, the shininess of your laptop is only a token gesture in that direction).

I'm inclined to try and cope without it for a while - just take a netbook out with me and see whether I actually miss the full-blown laptop. The only thing is I'm a little nervous - the laptop's a matter of months old and I'd hate to find out I'd spent that much on something I didn't need!