Apricot Computers

Apricot Computers Ltd., originally Applied Computer Techniques Ltd. (ACT), was a British electronic company active from 1965 to 2005. The company had its greatest success during the 1980s as a manufacturer of personal computers for businesses, including the highly popular ACT Sirius 1, which for a time was the most popular 16-bit business computer in Europe. The company later released a number of MS-DOS–compatible computer systems, to varying degrees of commercial success.

Apricot was an innovative computer hardware company with a research and development center in Birmingham capable of manufacturing nearly every component of a personal computer, except for the integrated circuits (chips) themselves. This included custom BIOS development, system-level programming, silk-screening of motherboards, metal fabrication for internal chassis, and radio-frequency testing of the completed systems. The company pioneered several technical innovations, including the first commercial shipment of an all-in-one system with a 3.5-inch floppy drive (ahead of Apple). In the early 1990s, they also manufactured one of the world's most secure x86-based PCs, sold exclusively to the UK government. While Apricot were known for their culture of innovation, this resulted in some developments which were technically advanced but proved to be highly disadvantageous in the marketplace.

Apricot remained a UK-owned company until its acquisition by the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (MELCO) in the early 1990s. Mitsubishi believed that this acquisition would help them compete against Japanese PC manufacturers, particularly, NEC, which commanded over 50% of the Japanese market at the time. Apricot began to outsource manufacturing, but it was still unable to compete. MELCO closed the company down, selling off the final assets in 1999. A management buyout resulted in a new company, Network Si UK Ltd being formed. In 2008, a second, independent Apricot company was launched in the UK.