The rise in popularity of netbooks last year helped boost Intel’s already dominant position in the global microprocessor market, according to fresh data from iSuppli. The research group said Intel gained share in every quarter of 2008, partly due to the success of its Atom chip in netbooks, the small, inexpensive, stripped-down PCs that have become hugely popular with consumers.

Intel held a an 81.8 percent revenue share in the microprocessor market in the fourth quarter, up from 78.4 percent a year earlier, iSuppli said. AMD, Intel’s main rival, accounted for 10.6 percent of microprocessor revenue in the period, down from 14.1 percent a year earlier.

“Intel grew its share of microprocessor in every quarter of 2008 on a sequential basis, effectively using each quarter as a building block for the next,” said iSuppli analyst Matthew Wilkins in a statement. “During this time, Intel’s low-priced Atom has become increasingly popular as the netbook market has gained steam.”

ISuppli expects worldwide unit shipments of netbooks to rise 68.5 percent in 2009. Analysts are forecasting netbook sales of 20 million to 30 million in 2009, and the devices are helping to reshape the sagging overall PC market.

Earlier this year, Intel said it expects to sell at least 50 percent more Atom chips for netbooks and other mobile Internet devices this year than last.

Stripped down, low-cost netbooks may be the hottest thing going in personal computers these days, but there continues to be debate about their ultimate impact on the income statement. Almost all of the world’s major PC companies have by now dived into the netbook market, including Hewlett-Packard, the world’s No. 1 PC maker.

HP CFO Cathie Lesjak was asked at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference whether the company expects to see a netbook impact on average selling prices (ASPs) and margins.

“I think you really need to separate ASP pressures from margins. Because first off we actually believe that netbooks in the long term are going to… generate incremental revenue and ultimately incremental profits … The netbook also has a lower bill of materials… If you’ve got good cost structure … long term we actually think this is positive for PC revenue and profit.”

Lesjak was also quizzed about the impact of Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system - which the software company says will be out by January 2010 - on consumer and corporate demand.

We didn’t think there was going to be a Vista moment. We don’t think there’s going to be a Windows 7 moment either… We are not expecting that there’s going to be this huge hockey stick effect when Windows 7 comes out. The good news is we’re hearing positive things about Windows 7.

Last week, HP slashed its full-year forecast, saying it expected weak market conditions to persist. Lesjak said Thursday she was “very confident in the earnings goals that we laid out for you in the earnings call last week and confident that we’ll generate strong cash flow in 2009.”

In the old days -– say six months ago -– netbooks were easy to describe in a few short words. Cheap (less than $400), small (10-inch screen or less) and light (less than 3 pounds). Alas, things are not quite so simple anymore.

The netbook category’s parameters were already expanding as the market flooded with new offerings. Screen sizes crept up, as did retail prices.

And then along comes Sony to really confuse things with its Vaio P Series Lifestyle PC, which it unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show. It’s plenty small (8-inch screen) and light (1.4 pounds). But note that decidedly un-netbook-like price tag: $900.

Of course, the company itself is not calling it a netbook either, although plenty of others are. And the impressive array of high-performance bells and whistles Sony packed into the little laptop might well justify the hefty price tag, and succeed in separating it from its similarly small, yet more stripped-down and lower-market peers.

So call it what you want, netbook or mini notebook or something else entirely. The Vaio P is simply the latest evidence that ultra-portable computers, though they may be small, are succeeding in redefining the PC world.

We reporters got the usual sneak peak at some of the gadgets on display at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, a couple days before the official start on Thursday.  Nothing struck us as terribly exciting or revolutionary, but there were a number of things that caught our eye. Just because they were cute, earth-friendly or designed to make life — or rather, downloads — a little easier. Here’s a selection of what we’ve seen so far:

Netbooks: OK, they’re not for making Photoshop collages or watching high-res movies (and the tiny keyboard can give you hand cramps after a while), but netbooks are light to carry and easy on the eye. We checked out the Asus netbooks, the smallest of which has a 7-inch screen. They have a new tablet PC model too, complete with a swivel screen and stylus. Lenovo also had netbooks on display.

Universal remote control: Not a big deal, but Logitech’s newest one is a sleek little gadget, with a 3.5-inch touch screen that fits easily in the palm of your hand. It’s an improvement on their previous universal remote, which had both a touch-based user interface and keys, the exhibitor told us. But it’s not cheap — she said it would retail for $499.95 from end-February onwards.

USB 3.0: The era of USB 3.0 is here, the folks from the USB Implementers Forum announced at CES. Data transfer speeds will get a lot faster once gadget makers begin making devices with the news standards. So, for example, you can download a 27 gigabyte high-definition movie in a little over a minute, or 8 gigabytes of photos from your camera in just 20 seconds. It will still all be compatible with USB 2.0 platforms, of course. Made me wonder for a minute about USB 1.0 compatibility… my work laptop still runs that standard.

Fuji’s green batteries: What’s green about these new AA and AAA batteries from Fuji apart from their color? They’re actually 94 percent recyclable. As the demo guy told us: “You could throw these into your backyard and it would be fine.” The batteries are made through a green manufacturing process and contain no mercury, but that doesn’t make them any pricier than your regular cells. ETA: around Earth Day.

3D webcam: Maybe Minoru’s new 3D webcam will make these gadgets trendy again. See your friends and family in 3D while talking to them over Skype, Windows Live Messenger, AIM and more. You can even record 3D videos and upload them to YouTube if you want. The webcam looks like a dorky red robot, will retail on Amazon for $89.95, and comes with five pairs of 3D glasses. That’s what I want. Corny 3D glasses. Like those in the picture.