Leading netbook manufacturers and suppliers on Wednesday dismissed the idea that interest in the small-form PCs will dissipate as the economy improves, suggesting instead that consumers will embrace them as complimentary devices.

Economic troubles has spurred consumers to purchase netbooks, but as consumers emerge from the recession, they will likely purchase both - a notebook for the home, for example, but a netbook for the children or to take on business, Todd Bouman, director of product marketing and development for mobile computing at Samsung, said at the Consumer Electronics Association's New York line show.

Netbooks will likely be a third of the business by the end of the quarter, he said.

Sarah Bussell, senor manager of product marketing for business notebooks at Hewlett-Packard, also saw netbooks as companion devices. But in her experience, the price point of netbooks also appeals to people without a notebook or mobile device, people who need them for on-the-go business needs, and those in emerging markets.

"Business typically takes longer to evaluate new technologies, but the opportunities have surprised us," she said.

Noury Al-Khaledy, general manager of nettop and netbook computing at Intel, was not worried about netbooks cannibalizing market share from higher-end PCs.

"The short story is that segmentation is great," he said. The key is to not oversell netbooks - be honest about what they can do. "If you look at our numbers, there's no reason to worry."

"We're not seeing any pushback," said Bruce Simon, director of data marketing for Verizon, which started selling HP netbooks last month.

Samsung introduced a 12-inch netbook earlier this year, a size that some argued blurred the lines between netbooks and notebooks.

"We're pushing boundaries, not flying in the face of Microsoft and Intel's [netbook requirements]," Bouman said. "We looked at what customers needed."

Many retailers said there as not room for a 12-inch netbook, but there was, Bouman continued.

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