The Appliance Studio Ltd. was established on 1st July 1999. Founded by two senior managers (Ray Crispin and Bill Sharpe) from Hewlett-Packard's European research headquarters (HP Labs), the company benefits from and continues to develop the more than 10 years of research work which HP Labs had completed in the area of information appliances..

Simon Lewis joined in January 2000, along with other key members of staff who also previously worked at HP Labs. Other members of the team, from a variety of backgrounds, have joined the company as it has grown.

Richard Harper joined in September 2002 having previously been director of the Digital World Research Centre at the University of Surrey.