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.

Apricot Computers was founded in 1965 as Applied Computer Techniques Ltd. (ACT). 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.

In 1980, ACT released their first microcomputer, the ACT-800, already produced and marketed in the US by Computhink as the Minimax, marketing this product in the UK under the ACT brand. Computhink's system was based on the 6502, but supported 64 additional user-definable instructions, with these being configured by default to support the instructions of the FIFTH programming language: "a combination of FORTH and Pascal". Minimax pricing started at $7,770, whereas pricing of the ACT-800 started at £3,950. Computhink would later announce computers based on the Motorola 68000.

In 1982, ACT signed a deal with Victor to distribute the Victor 9000 as the ACT Sirius 1 in the UK and Europe. Priced at £2,395 excluding VAT, the Sirius 1 could run CP/M-86 or MS-DOS, but it was not hardware-compatible with the IBM PC. The Sirius 1 became the most popular 16-bit business computer in Europe, especially in Britain and Germany, while IBM delayed the release of the PC in those markets.

The success of the Sirius 1 led to the Apricot PC or ACT Apricot in September 1983, based on an Intel 8086 microprocessor running at 4.77 MHz. Like the Sirius 1, it ran MS-DOS or CP/M-86 but was not compatible at a hardware level with the IBM PC. 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. It had two floppy disk drives, and was one of the first systems to use 3.5" disks, rather than the 5.25" disks which were the norm at the time. The keyboard featured eight conventional function keys along with six touch-sensitive programmable ones, the latter associated with a built-in LCD screen (2 lines of 40 characters) known as the Microscreen, which displayed the current function of the keys, or could be configured to echo the current command line in MS-DOS. The keyboard could use the Microscreen autonomously to operate as an integrated calculator, and the result of a calculation could be sent to the computer where it would appear on the command line or in the current application. However, this calculator function could still be used with the computer powered off. Microsoft Word and Multiplan were supplied with the Apricot PC. Lotus 1-2-3 was also available, and took advantage of the machine's high-resolution graphics. A flap covered the floppy drives when not in use. The industrial design of the machine was well conceived. The keyboard could be clipped to the base of the machine, and an integrated handle used for transporting it. The supplied green phosphor monitor had a nylon mesh glare filter.

A model with a built-in 10 MB hard disk (known as the Apricot PC Xi) was made available later in 1984. One enhancement in the original Apricot PC and PC Xi models over contemporary IBM PC compatibles was the inclusion of the SN76489 sound generator chip, also used in computers such as the BBC Micro, providing three sound channels, although support for these capabilities was absent from the BASIC implementation. Documentation for the chip was reportedly provided in the system's technical documentation.