I think there is a world market for maybe five quantum computers
Dominik Schultes · 2004
In 1943, Thomas J. Watson, chairman of IBM, stated “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” From todays point of view, we can boldly say that this statement could be assessed with a superlative of “wrong” if such a word existed. The main reason for the success story of the (conventional) computer is the fact that it is a general purpose machine. As it can solve problems from a wide range of applications, everyone needs one. At the moment, the situation regarding quantum computers seems to be different. Despite of the fact that the idea of quantum computing was proposed already over 20 years ago by R. Feynman [Fey82], till this day, only a minor amount of applications is covered by quantum algorithms so that we cannot speak of a general purpose machine. Let us have a closer look at some of the most popular problems that should demonstrate the potential strength of the quantum computer.