Hewlett-Packard unveils kiddie laptops

Mini machines used for the basics: surfing the Web, word processing

Hewlett-Packard's new "Mini-Note" weighs less than 3 pounds with a screen that measures 8.9 inches diagonally. HP's Christine Wright holds a new class of the miniature laptop here.

SAN FRANCISCO - One more of the world's biggest technology companies is clamoring to enter the growing market for pint-sized computers targeted mainly for pint-sized customers.

The machines are so new the industry hasn't settled on a name for low-cost and scaled-down laptops used primarily for surfing the Internet and performing other basic functions like word processing.

Intel has labeled them "netbooks," and it expects more than 50 million netbooks to be in circulation by 2011.