JUST two years ago, tablet PCs - we'll call them tabtops - seemed poised for the technological scrap heap.

Applications took ages to load, the handwriting recognition function did not work so well and the gizmos were practically the size of a phonebook.

In short, the high-quality, easy-to-use handheld gadgets that we were promised in 2000 were nowhere in sight.

Fast forward to 2008.

Since the likes of Hewlett-Packard and Fujitsu souped up the technology and improved the handwriting recognition quality of their tablet PCs, these gadgets have taken off like the Airbus 380.

What's more, many of these tabtops feature rotatable screens. Simply twist the screen around, slide it flat on the keyboard and it morphs into a tablet PC - an electronic scribbling pad.

Throw in laptop functions and you have a powerful all-in-one.

So popular are these mini-Transformers that in the past six months alone, tech giants have churned out a spate of them, including the IBM Lenovo X61, Toshiba M700 and Fujitsu LifeBook T2010.

Their efforts seem to be paying off.

Kathy Sin, research manager of IDC, said that in 2007, tabtops captured a 5 per cent share of the overall Singapore notebook market - an increase from 1 per cent in 2006.

Kathy credits the growth here mainly to the HP Pavilion series models targeted at the consumer market. She said: 'Most users buy it just because its price is attractive.'

Unlike price-pressured laptops that are selling for as low as $1,000, tabtops are able to command premium rates - anything from $2,000 to $4,000.

Might as well pawn the old PC now. Tabtops are coming our way so fast and furious that even the coolest laptop now looks so 20th century.