During Monday's conference call, Intel CEO Paul Otellini had quite a few things to say about the company's upcoming CULV platform for thin and light notebooks. Otellini claims CULV will enable vendors to come up with stylish notebooks at very compelling price points, and that this trend will be the big thing when it comes to notebooks in 2009.

"The big trend in notebooks this year, starting mid-year, is likely to be very well designed thin and light notebooks using the CULV or ultra-low-voltage products," says Otellini. "I think you'll see those at very attractive price points. Up to this point in time, those machines have been sort of executive jewelry and I think they'll hit mainstream consumer price points."

Interestingly, Otellini expects "a more clear distinguishing set of characteristics between netbooks and notebooks," whereas his AMD counterpart, Dirk Meyer, said recently that the line distinguishing notebooks and netbooks will likely blur and disappear over time.

Intel is trying to keep vendors from using Atoms in larger notebook designs, but several companies have decided to launch 11.6, 12, and even 13.3-inch Atom based notebooks. We wonder if Intel will try to clamp down on such mischief and impose its netbook guidelines more stringently once CULV becomes available.