Acorn Computers

Acorn Computers Ltd. was a British computer company established in Cambridge, England, in 1978. The company produced a number of computers which were especially popular in the UK, including the Acorn Electron and the Acorn Archimedes. Acorn's BBC Micro computer dominated the UK educational computer market during the 1980s It is more known for its BBC Micro model B computer than for its other products.

Though the company was broken up into several independent operations in 1998, its legacy includes the development of RISC personal computers. One of its operating systems, RISC OS, continues to be developed by RISC OS Open. Some of Acorn's former subsidiaries live on today—notably ARM Holdings, which is globally dominant in the mobile phone and PDA microprocessor market.

Acorn is sometimes referred to as the "British Apple" and has been compared to Fairchild Semiconductor for being a catalyst for start-ups. In 2010, the company was listed by David Meyer in ZDNet as number nine in a feature of top ten fallen "Dead IT giants". Many British IT professionals gained their early experiences on Acorns, which were often more technically advanced than commercially successful US hardware.

Acorn Computers (2006)

Acorn Computers Ltd was a company based in Nottingham, England in the United Kingdom. It licensed, in early 2006, the dormant Acorn Computers trademark from French company Aristide & Co Antiquaire De Marques. This company sold IBM PC compatible computers and had no connection to ARM.

Launch

In April 2006, internet news portals claimed that the company was to relaunch. The new company announced its range before the 2006 Computer Trade Show, held at the NEC near Birmingham, UK. At the show, the company distributed leaflets inviting people to "be part of one of the most exciting brand re-launches in UK history" by joining its reseller program.

Products

The company sold a range of laptop computers. The systems used Microsoft Windows rather than the RISC OS operating system developed by the original Acorn Computers and this incarnation of Acorn did not support or license any technologies or products of the original, apart from the name and trademark.

The reuse of the Acorn Computers Ltd name caused an amount of confusion and controversy, particularly amongst users of the original company's products.