Sales of a device which makes holding a computer tablet more comfortable are running into the tens of thousands within a year of its launch.

The award-winning G-hold ergonomic handhold device, made by Edinburgh-based Safetray Products, is designed to make the holding of tablets such as an i-Pad more comfortable. After being launched last year it has now sold in over 20 countries around the world.

Alison Grieve, the Glasgow-born inventor of the product and Safetray founder, says that many people who hold tablets for any length of time often find the experience uncomfortable and this can result in painful nerve compression.

Her revolutionary solution has been to create the G-hold device that clamps onto the underside of any tablet and which slips comfortably between the fingers of users. This, she claims, avoids any muscular-skeletal disorders which can be experienced when gripping a product as thin as a tablet over long periods of time.

The most popular version of the G-Hold uses micro suction – a new nano-suction material – to suck on to the devices multiple times without leaving marks when removed.

Ms Grieve first began developing handholds with her patented product range Safetray – a tray designed to make it virtually impossible to topple drinks.

The inspiration for the tray came from witnessing an accident at a dinner event where a bottle of champagne and glasses shattered on the floor after a waiter lost balance.

After launching the G-Hold last year, sales went through the roof after it was seen on the television being used by Suzi Perry, the presenter of BBC’s Formula 1 coverage.

This month a version of the hold emblazoned with the Glasgow University logo has been put on sale, in honour of the 50th anniversary of Ms Grieve’s knighted grandfather – Sir Robert Grieve – taking up the university’s first professorship of town and regional planning.

“There is still a dissertation prize at the university that bears my grandfather's name," said Ms Grieve. "I'm sure he would like to see the Grieve family's connection to the university continue through the generations."

“We’re on a mission to change the way the world holds things. I hope that my grandfather would be pleased to see a small part of that taking place in Glasgow, if he was alive today.”