microsoft and quantum computing

The above-mentioned corporation is a multinational corporation headquartered in the United States that deals with technical advances and enhancements. The company’s headquarters are in Redmond, Washington, in the United States of America (USA). In a wider sense, it is concerned with the sale and computation of computer software, personal computers and associated utilities, consumer electronics, and the production of licenses (Menicucci 2014). The corporation has grown dramatically as a result of recent technical developments that have quickly taken over other businesses and the activities they carry out. By so saying, Microsoft has added other services apart from the ones for which it was earlier developed for and includes the provision of communication services through Skype and mailing and also ensured that children are not left behind as far as the corporation’s activities are concerned (Kumar et al. 2017). Children get to have fun by playing different games and gaming interfaces that rely on the Microsoft for their establishment. Such gaming platforms include X-Box and other Personal Computer games that come with the operating system that an individual may opt to install on their computers (Jahromi and Shirazi 2015). The latter is a reminder that the Microsoft firm is behind the operating systems that support the additional software that people use in their personal or rather the portable laptops they use for school or work purposes (Coronel and Morris 2016).

The organization’s managerial team managed to come up with the Microsoft virtual academy and developer programs to assist both the current and the forthcoming generation where technological enhancement is concerned (Hirvensalo 2013). On the same note, the firm has employed the Quantum computing knowledge through the direct application of quantum mechanical phenomena in order to perform its operations that are data-based (Goswami and Goswami 2016). The quantum computation is not only convenient in making the company manage its data efficiently but also to establish their systems on foundations they can smoothly operate and maneuver to their satisfaction which is guaranteed by client feedback and profit margins that accrue to the organization (Childress and Hanson2013.

Critical Analysis

In pertinence to the operational model of the company, it offers a wide range of services, devices, and products which serve to make it the world’s leading technology company. The operational strategy not only ensures that it covers more ground but also provides more ways for the firm to come up with profit generation means that make it stay at the top of imminent competition (Reilly and Hynan 2014. Also, the company offers an array of services that range from global audience advertisements to cloud-based services. The latter includes the selling, designing, manufacturing and selling devices that have already been integrated with services that are cloud-based.

The wide range of operations have made the firm to serve a broad clientele that includes organizations, Original Equipment manufacturers (OEMs), application developers and individual consumers. The latter are included in the list as they play a role in the profits that accrue to the firm after they have made personal decisions to make purchases for devices they may either intend to use at their places of work or even at the places they stay (Raychev 2015). Through the partnership with the OEMs, the organization can make the products it deals with to the individual buyers through the OEMs thus cutting o some of the selling costs.

Additionally, buyers may also make purchases through the resellers and distributors who share a connection with the firm. The latter serves a large market which is contained of organizations of different sizes which range from small and medium-sized organizations (SMEs) to large global enterprises. Such may include public sector institutions, Academic institutions and internet service providers (Aasen et al. 2016). In addition, there are tailored license programs, specialized services, consulting services and enterprise-wide support that are offered by the Microsoft Company. As far as the connection Microsoft shares with OEMs, the latter are used in the distribution of software programs that are pre-installed from the company. The applications can easily be installed on servers, tablets, Personal Computers, phones and other devices they may perceive to be intelligent just as the aforementioned ones.

Essential Elements of Microsoft’s Business Model

Revenue Cost

The revenue that accrues to the firm is as a result of the products it manufactures and distributes which are always licensed in a bid to increase their validity. Within the company, there are numerous support services centers which may be in dire need of funding in which the company’s managerial team always chips in to ensure the department is well funded in order for it to continue with the routine operations for which it is obligated. The above-mentioned department works closely with that related to products distribution as the aforementioned is the reason the one that was earlier mentioned exists in the first place.

The organization also incurs costs when OEMs are obligated with the duty of selling pre-installed software and others when OEMs drive traffic to the website that belongs to the Microsoft Company. The firm carries out a continuous assessment and maintenance of the products and services that may be internet-based which may in a broad perspective include royalties and costs of managing data centers. Lastly, there is the amortization of software developments costs that may need capitalization.

Research & Development (R&D)

The firm researches to ensure that it stays at the top of the competitive market which relies heavily on innovative and inventive minds. The reason being that innovations and inventions play a pivotal role in the development of programs that may be quite essential to not only the firm but also the platforms that some of the competing companies need to sustain their products (Peteraf et al. 2014). It was through research and developments that the company was able to come up with the concept of quantum computing and how it can best be utilized in performing data operations. The latter can only be done through processes such as entanglement and superposition.

Quantum Computing

Quantum computing is an emerging technology that is potentially disruptive. The technique utilizes quantum-mechanical phenomena which include entanglement and superposition in order to perform operations that may be correlated to data operations (Fisher et al. 2014). Quantum computation considerably varies; there are those whose establishments are based on binary digital electronic computers and are operated on transistors. The underlying knowledge that is used in the making of computer prototypes and robots exist owing to the correlation it has with quantum computing. The latter is the concept on which computers are used in harnessing and acting in obedience to quantum mechanics, and they have proven to be quite helpful as they have been the reason behind the transformations that most people now appreciate.

Benefits

Quantum computers are meant to work in the sense that they can quickly crunch the numbers that would have most possibly taken an individual a lifetime or maybe longer in other cases. A case example is the mapping of trillions of amino acids that are meant to be used in the futuristic drugs cures or when there is an outbreak that requires the process to be done as quickly as possible (Dean 2016. The human mind or hands cannot be first enough to handle all the trillion amino acids that are expected to be used in the process, and therefore the quantum computers are helpful in helping salvage the situation at hand by doing or instead handling the same piece of work in a shorter time.

Most of the time we do not make sense of the avalanche of public information and data that we often use in our offices, places of work or even academic institutions. Therefore, in order to have a clear-cut comprehension of the information, we have to get the assistance of quantum computers to interpret the data on our behalf or should I say for us since we do not have the capacity to do so by ourselves (Schwalbe 2015).

Limitations

A quantum computer cannot function if the information to be processed does not exist long enough for the computers to analyze them which is commonly referred to as the coherence of qubit (Casanova et al. 2016). The qubit coherence serves to ensure that the information that is processed by the quantum computer remains intact and is safeguarded from any influence whatsoever. However, recent discoveries show that the coherence that is witnessed or processed by the quantum computers sometimes disappear spontaneously. The process may sometime take place without any external interference.

Discussion and Recommendation

Quantum Computers have proven to be quite helpful more so in instances that are very critical which is the exact time that such assistance is often needed (Chang 2016). By so saying, I feel that even though they may inherent some of the weaknesses that cannot be somehow explained, they are beneficial and may assist the Vodaphone Company to stay at the top of not only inventions but also competitions that may threaten the existence of such an influential firm (Vaikuntanathan et al. 2016). The quantum computers can be used in the compilation of data and analysis of the information that is compiled by the firm. Also, they may be applied in the company by helping in handling atomic components of the devices that the firm makes thus saving time that would have been spent in handling them manually (Barends et al. 2016).

Since the use of quantum computers has been proven to be essential in huge organizations, I would without a doubt recommend them for use in the Vodaphone Company. Making such an investment in such technology would only serve to help ease work and other activities that require assistance that they may give (Al Amin et al. 2015). The chances or rather probabilities of the organization benefiting from them would almost be thrice the limitations they may be having as they are made by human beings and may be prone to minor issues and breakdowns that may be the cause of some of the limitation as I had mentioned earlier in this text and I move to think that an investment would be worth the risk (Chow et al. 2014).

Also, it is critical to set up lessons for the employs so that they can learn the ways in which quantum computing may best be applied in making the firm achieve its full potential. It would be a disaster if the technology is introduced in the firm yet the workers do not know how to operate the machines in question. The organization would incur training costs, but then it would be worthwhile in the end.

Company’s Potential

The Microsoft Company has the ability to achieve more than it has in the recent past if at all it makes strategic decisions endeared towards driving it in the right direction. Since the firm deals with the manufacture of technologically-based equipment that take some time to make, the institution of quantum computing may be helpful in saving the organization the time, they would have otherwise spent in making the machines and labour applied in their manufacture. Since quantum computation has both benefits and limitations, it is only right to say that using it in the firm would be a risk but one that is worth taking as it has given incredible results since its invention.

Conclusion

In operating a business, there are always risks that are involved, and the owner(s) of the firm has to be prepared to take such chances. The reason being that risks are bases on which the organization was founded. On the same note, Microsoft’s founders; Paul Allen and Bill Gates should be ready to take risks which in this case pertain to the use of quantum computing in the organization. Staying at the top of the competitive market is difficult and therefore taking a risk in a bid to beat other companies dealing in the same line of products is worth the risk. On the contrary, not taking chances would mean that the principles on which the founders came up with the idea to form the corporation would be in vain.

References

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