So today I read http://www.physorg.com/news196258264.html and got all excited about photonics as a possible next step. I also keep reading about the advances in quantum computing including the quantum encryption being used at the world cup matches in Africa. It seems to me like there is a bit of a race between the two concepts to land the next evolution of data processing.
After thinking about where both of those technologies are I have to admit that it looks much more likely that we'll see a photonic processor in a PC long before we see a quantum processor. At the same time I do think the quantum techniques will come into more use.
Perhaps what we'll see is a move to photonics for general computing with quantum techniques being used for specialized applications like encryption. In the last 10 years we've gone from the introduction of a 64 bit processor to 6 core hyper threaded processors. I'm looking forward to the next evolution of processors. My money is on photonics as being the next step with quantum processing not far behind.