Small Business Labs

What is Quantum Computing?

The announcements that Google and Lockheed Martin have purchased quantum computers has led to a lot of recent coverage on the topic.

Quantum computers are very, very fast. Instead of using the traditional approach of a string of 1's and 0's that are either turned on or off, quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits.

Qubits take advantage of the weird behavior of quantum mechanics which means they can essentially be both on and off at the same time.  This allows them to multitask and at least in some cases potentially run thousands of times faster than traditional computers.

The leader in quantum computing is a Canadian company called D-Wave. Their machines are not cheap to buy nor cheap to run. MIT's Technology Review reports both Lockheed Martin and Google likely paid in the $15 million range for their quantum computer. 

And GigaOm has an interesting article on the expensive and difficult need to cool quantum computers to near absolute zero.

The picture on the right shows part of the D-Wave cooling tower.  

So don't expect to see quantum computers at Best Buy anytime soon.

Google says they are going to focus their quantum computing efforts on machine learning applications.

According to a NY Times article, Google's Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, which is what they are calling their quantum computing entity,will focus on:

"machine learning, which is the way computers take note of patterns of information to improve their outputs. Personalized Internet search and predictions of traffic congestion based on GPS data are examples of machine learning. The field is particularly important for things like facial or voice recognition, biological behavior, or the management of very large and complex systems."

Quantum computing is potentially more than just a game changer for computing. It could fundamentally change pretty much everything from how we view the universe to humankind itself.  Yes, this sounds more than a bit over the top.  And yes, it's still years away.  

But the potential power of quantum computing is nothing short of amazing.

Corporate Training Exploding and Changing

Interesting article on Bersin by Deloitte's site on corporate training.  As the chart below (from the article) shows, after a steep decline during the recession U.S. spending on corporate training has strongly rebounded.

 
The reasons given by Bersin for this shift towards investing in training are:

1. The need for specialized skills is increasing. 
2. Workforce education and skills have atrophied.
3. Leadership development and succession management have become critical business needs. 

Companies are also shifting to online and informal training.  Key quote from the article:

This year companies grew their “informal learning” spending by 39%, demonstrating a steady shift toward social learning tools, knowledge sharing, expert directories, and other forms of information sharing. Mobile learning is now becoming mainstream ... companies have settled into a world of one-third instructor-led and two-thirds technology enabled training.

This is good news.  For the last few years we've consistently heard complaints from everyone that companies are no longer interested in training employees. Hopefully this view is changing.

Is DuckDuckGo the Future of Search?

No, DuckDuckGo is not a children's game (that's duck duck goose).  It's an Internet search engine.  

As a recent Washington Post article on the company points out, it has two major differences from Google - they don't track their users and they don't filter search results based on tracking their users.

Not tracking their users is, of course, of interest to those concerned about online privacy. We think this provides an interesting advantage for DuckDuckGo.

As consumers become more aware of just how much online tracking is going on - and how this data is being used to compile detailed individual profiles - it's likely there will be push back.  A privacy oriented search engine could easily benefit from being the leader in this niche.

The second difference - they don't filter search results based on usage data - is why we've been using DuckDuckGo for the past few months.

A big part of our job is trying to identify what we don't know about a research topic that we should. Generally speaking, this information comes from sources we aren't aware of. This means our search history is not only not a good indicator of where this information might be, it actually reduces the probability we'll find what we need.

Because DuckDuckGo's results are unfiltered, we often find new sources related to the topic we're looking at.  This is good.  

DuckDuckGo has some other interesting advantages relative to Google. An article on the company from Search Engine Land, for example, argues DuckDuckGo provides better search result presentation than Google.  

Having said all that, Google is still our primary search engine and we have no plans to fully replace using DuckDuckGo. In most cases, filtered results are really useful. We also prefer some other features of Google - news search is one example.  

So while we like DuckDuckGo, we see it as a niche product.  But we find it useful - and useful things tend to last.

Is 3D Printing Overhyped?

3D printing has been getting a lot of attention these days. Maybe too much.

The chart below shows the number of Google hits for 3D printing for each of the last 4 years.  The hits are in millions and for 12 month September to September time periods. 

 

It's pretty clear from this data interest in 3D printing has taken off over the last year. To be fair, there has been a lot of interesting 3D printing news.  

Maker Bot opening a retail store in New York City is an example (click here to see a video of the store). They also released a new version of their Star Trek inspired Replicator 3D printer.  

There's also been a lot of announcements around new things that can manufactured using 3D printing. My favorite is Airbus announcing it hopes to make planes using 3D printers. Before you get too excited, they hope to do this by 2050.  

We're big fans of 3D printing and have been covering it for years. We consider it one of the key technologies helping to bring back small manufacturing. 

But the hype does seem to be getting ahead of the reality, or at least that's what one expert thinks. Gartner also thinks 3D printing is overhyped and at least 5 years away from broad use.

We agree. 3D printing is and will continue to an excellent niche tool for making things as well as wonderful device for product designers. But broad, mainstream use of 3D printing is still at least 3-5 years away.

Cleveland's Startup Accelerator Program

Shaker LaunchHouse is a 23,000 square foot startup accelerator located in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland.

They are sponsoring a 12 week residential accelerator program that will provide $25,000 in funding, classes on entrepreneurship, mentoring and networking for 10 startup teams.  The program begins on September 3rd and is held at LaunchHouse (bring your long johns, winter starts early in Cleveland).

You need to apply by July 1st.  

Their press release provides the following program description:

The LaunchHouse Accelerator program aims to help entrepreneurs take their ideas to validation during the length of the program. LaunchHouse’s development methods are customer-centric, meaning that from the very beginning you are engaging your market. At the end of 12 weeks, each team will present to local and national Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors on our Showcase Day on November 28.

There are now over a 100 active startup accelerator programs in the U.S., with more being announced every week.  As the LaunchHouse programs shows, you no longer have to be in a traditional tech hub like Silicon Valley or Austin to have access to these programs.  They're springing up all over the U.S.

Despite the very real concerns there may be a startup accelerator bubble, we think the growth of accelerators in cities not traditionally known for tech is a good thing.  Programs in different parts of the country will bring new people, perspectives, ideas and innovations.  

Will Tablets Become Our Primary Computing Device?

Forrester just released a report called Tablets Will Rule the Future Personal Computing Landscape.  In it they forecast that tablets will become the primary computing device for most users within the next four years. 

From a forecasting standpoint that's a pretty bold statement - especially given the short time frame of only 4 years.  

In terms of numbers, Forrester is saying 375 million tablets will be sold globally in 2016.  This is almost twice the forecast (200 million) that IDC currently has.  

A Computer World article on the forecast explains why Forrester thinks tablets will become the central personal computing device:

... they are easy to use and share; portable; have all-day battery life; and are flexible for both content consumption and creative and productive work, the Forrester report said.

One of the more interesting forecasts is the advent of something Forrester calls "Frames".  These are wireless docking stations that have sensors, processing power and displays that can be connected to smartphones and tablets.  According to the Computer World article:

Frames will be stationed in meeting rooms, coffee shops and more, Forrester said. Tablets used with frames will substitute for laptops in significant volume, the report said.

There's no doubt we've entered a post-PC era and tablet sales are exploding.  

Despite our misgivings about tablets as content creation tools, we agree they are great content consumption devices.  And since content consumption has become the main use of computers, we're on board with Forrester's forecast.

Forrester Thinks Wearable Computing is Taking Off

Forrester issued a report saying wearable computing is about to take off.  

As we pointed out in a prior post on this topic, wearable computing is not a new trend.  For decades computing devices designed to be attached to the human body have been available.  Most of have been targeted at health and fitness.  Workout related heart rate monitors, for example, have been around since the 1980s.  

Forrester believes that consumer interest in wearables for applications in health and fitness, navigation, social networking and gaming is starting to grow.  They also seem to think that the major platform players like Google, Apple and Facebook are getting interested in wearables.  

The New York Times Bits column covers the Forrester report and has additional information on the wearables market.

Who's Buying All Those iPads?

In case you missed it, Apple reported yet another quarter of strong sales and earnings yesterday.  Last quarter they sold 35 million iPhones and 11.8 million iPads.  Not bad.

So who is buying all the iPads?  Well, Bank Technology News covers this in their article The Young and the Affluent:  A Sweet Spot for Tablets.  The article reports on Tablet research conducted by the syndicated research firm Javelin.  

Javelin says tablet owners are younger and wealthier than average consumers - and iPad owners in particular are much wealthier.  Key quote from the article:

"... tablet owners are younger (25-44) and wealthier (average annual income over $100K) and have more investable assets ... Among devices, the Apple iOS is particularly attractive in this regard — Javelin reports 68 percent of tablet owners with incomes over $150,000 own an iPad, as opposed to 26 percent for Android tablets and 13 percent for Amazon Fire."

The article also points out that tablets are not replacing PCs or Smartphones.  Instead they are being used a more casual way to access information.  Interesting quote on this:

"When you look at smartphones, people are looking at data quickly and are getting in and out. PC users are power users, they use PCs heavily. So far with tablets, and this could change, people are more in 'layback' mode, which means they are making it a casual interaction," says Mary Monahan, executive vice president and research director at Javelin Research ..."

Tablets are also, of course, much more visual - something that's becoming increasingly important in computing.  We'll have more on the growing role visualization of data and information is playing in the coming months.

What is the Post-PC Era?

During Apple's recent iPad announcement CEO Tim Cook made several references to the "post-PC era". This led to a flurry of articles on the topic.

At the simplest level, the post-PC era refers to the growth of computing devices that are not traditional PCs.  More specifically, the current use of the term refers to the growth of smartphones and tablets.     

The term and concepts date back at least to the late 1990s when discussions of computer and Internet enabling wristwatches, glasses and other objects were quite popular.  

The chart below, from Business Insider's article on Apple's iPad announcement, does a nice of job summing up the reasons why people are again talking about the post PC era.  The chart shows the number of devices shipped in Q4 2011 by the major PC manufacturers compared to iPad shipments.  

As you can see, Apple sold more iPads than any of the major PC manufacturers sold PCs.  Apple also sold 172 million post-PC devices last year (defined by Apple as iPods, iPhones and iPads).

So the post-Pc era is clearly here, but that doesn't mean traditional PCs will go away any time soon. Most forecasters are suggesting the market for traditional PCs (desktops and laptops) will continue to grow over at least the next 3-5.  

Instead it means a proliferation of the types and numbers of computing devices we use.  For example, when I travel I carry 3 computing devices, 2 of which are post-PC - an iPhone, a MacBook Air and an Amazon Kindle Fire.  Each plays a role and adds to my productivity.

   

Gen Y, Women Connected

Nielsen's State of the Media: U.S. Digital Consumer Report, Q3-Q4 2011 (free, registration required) describes in detailed the digital connectedness of Gen Y, which they describe as 18-34 year olds.

None of the data is surprising - everyone knows Gen Y is a wired generation.  But it's very useful to see hard data supporting this.  Key quote from their blog post on the report:

The latest Census reports that Americans 18-34 make up 23 percent of the U.S. population, yet they represent an outsized portion of consumers watching online video (27%), visiting social networking/blog sites (27%), owning tablets (33%) and using a smartphone (39%). 

Also interesting is the finding that women are more active users of digital media than men.  Women are:

• 51% of TV viewers
• 53% of online video users
• 54% of social network/blog visitors
• 50% of smartphone owners

Men, of course, still dominate the use of TV remotes and change channels 57 times more often than women (OK, that was not in the report).  Men also comprise 53% of tablet owners (that was in the report).