The delay in getting commercial value on real world applications from quantum computing can be attributed to one overarching fact, the hardware is not ready yet. Whereas classical information is represented on transistors as “bits,” quantum information is represented on physical quantum bits, aka “qubits.” Now, how does one engineer a qubit? There are different proposals for this. However, physical qubits remain in relatively short supply, and like early transistors are far too error-prone for reliable computation. We need breakthroughs.
