July 2, 2026
Forbidden Fruit?
Apricot Computers: An underrated British brand
Britain’s forgotten PC maker has fans, haters, and one brutally savage review
TLDR: Apricot was a bold British computer maker that pushed stylish, early high-end machines but eventually disappeared after struggling against cheaper rivals. In the comments, people are torn between calling it underrated design royalty and bluntly dismissing it as a nice-looking brand that never quite fit the software world people actually used.
Apricot Computers is getting a fresh look thanks to a resurfaced BBC business rescue show, and the real entertainment is watching the comments split between nostalgia, snark, and total confusion. On paper, Apricot sounds like a lost hero: a British computer brand that built stylish machines at home, beat bigger rivals to some major launches, and tried to stay independent while cheaper overseas competition closed in. But in the court of public opinion? Let’s just say the jury is extremely online.
One commenter delivered the most devastating review imaginable in just four words: “They were pants” — a very British way of saying they were rubbish. Ouch. Others rushed in with the counterpoint that Apricot actually looked better than the sea of boring beige boxes sold at the time, with one former seller fondly grouping them with Grid as machines that had real design flair. Then there’s the wistful side of the thread: people remembering rumored models that never seemed to arrive, and others praising Apricot’s early machines while also admitting the brand may have hurt itself by making computers that didn’t always play nicely with the software everyone wanted.
Even the comedy side showed up: one reader couldn’t even get the page to load properly and complained they were just seeing raw website data instead of the story — a perfect little internet farce. So yes, Apricot may be underrated, but the comments make clear why it never became a household legend: some remember innovation, some remember incompatibility, and some just remember the vibes.
Key Points
- •The article uses a 1990 BBC *Trouble Shooter* episode featuring Sir John Harvey-Jones to examine Apricot Computers’ business and manufacturing challenges.
- •Apricot is described as the first company to ship a 486-based PC in 1989, ahead of larger competitors including Compaq and IBM.
- •Apricot licensed IBM’s Microchannel architecture and shipped Microchannel systems in quantity while also selling conventional AT-based machines.
- •The company kept PC design in Birmingham and manufacturing in Glenrothes longer than many rivals, even as lower-cost production and design outsourcing in Asia intensified industry pressure.
- •According to founder Roger Foster and Harvey-Jones’s review, Apricot’s maintenance and software operations were profitable, but its hardware business was not.