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).

[1] 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.

[2][3][4] ACT was founded in the United Kingdom as a time-sharing service bureau for businesses in the Great Britain region.

In the 1970s, it expanded into reselling office equipment such as copiers, leasing turn-key minicomputers, and providing telecommunications services such as electronic mail.

[12] The Sirius 1 became the most popular 16-bit business computer in Europe,[13] especially in Britain and Germany, while IBM delayed the release of the PC in those markets.

Instead, software compatibility with the Sirius 1 was prioritised, with the 800×400 pixel display resolution retained from the earlier model to serve this goal.

Apricot offered a fibre optic cable, effectively tethering the keyboard, as a remedy in environments with multiple units.

Unlike earlier models, the F1 provided a maximum display resolution of 640×256 featuring four colours from a choice of sixteen, as well as a 640×200 display mode for compatibility with IBM PC applications,[14] but to mitigate potential software portability issues across its own range, Apricot supplied Digital Research's GSX software.

Also in 1984, the Apricot Portable was released with an infrared keyboard and mouse/trackball, a voice system, 4.77 MHz CPU, 640×200 LCD display for £1,695.

The machine was unusual in that it contained the same 36-way Centronics parallel port that appeared on many contemporary printers (and continued to do so until virtually replaced with USB and ethernet).

The F-series infrared keyboards contained a real-time clock; during the machine's boot sequence, the BIOS would graphically prompt the user to press the 'DATE/TIME' key.

[28] In 1989, a cover story in Byte magazine announced the Apricot VX FT Server as the world's first machine to incorporate the Intel 80486 microprocessor.

[29] This machine, designed by Bob Cross, was a fault-tolerant file server based on Micro Channel Architecture, incorporating an external RAM cache and its own UPS.

In January 1990 Apricot acquired Information Technology Limited, a UK-based developer of UNIX systems.

Apricot continued to experiment with alternative form factors in a market dominated by standardised 'beige boxes'.

In 1991, Apricot were the largest partner in a consortium developing a completely new computer-aided dispatch system (LASCAD) for the London Ambulance Service.

Though a later inquiry's examination of the Apricot computer hardware aspect revealed no major problems, the end-to-end solution by the consortium of providers failed disastrously on its first day in full operation,[32] and is often used a case study in the failure of IT project management.

[39] In 2008 a new, independent company was launched in the UK, with its first product coming out in October 2008 – the Apricot Picobook Pro, a VIA NanoBook-based netbook.