The return of Apricot

Remember Apricot Computers? Well, they're back... in name, at least. Having been swallowed by Mitsubishi in the '90s, and finally killed off in '99, the brand was bought up a few months ago by a chap called Shahid Sultan.

Now Apricot is returning to the UK market with a netbook called the PicoBook Pro. Launched today, the device sports a 1.2GHz Via processor, a 60GB hard drive and what the company calls "WiMax support", although don't take this to mean it actually has WiMax built into it or anything - it just could, if there was any point to doing so.

It costs £279 for the SUSE Linux version (about £40 more for the XP version, as I recall from the event where I saw the thing last night), which means that, for the same cash, you could pick yourself up an Asus Eee 901. IMHO, you'd be better off with the 901. I wish Apricot luck, but I can't see why they've gone for that price point with that spec.

Anyway, if you do want to scoop up a bit of faux nostalgia, then visit the relaunched-today apricotcomputers.com website - it's the only place you can find the PicoBook Pro. I have asked for a review sample, to see if the thing grows on me, as it were, and will report back accordingly...