Sony is nearing production of its rumored netbook and has already chosen a parts supplier, according to a report by the Taiwan-area newspaper Economic Daily News. Well-known electronics assembler Foxconn is said to have been tapped for making individual components in a very small Sony system being built now that the company and other Japanese manufacturers are less worried that the category will cannibalize their regular notebook sales.

Despite the repeated leaks, few details are available regarding the system itself, though common netbooks like the ASUS Eee PC and Acer Aspire One have screens between seven and 10 inches in size as well as an Intel Atom processor and either flash-based storage or else a 1.8-inch hard drive. The Sony system and others would most likely launch in the fall for at least Japan.