"The new 433 qubit 'Osprey' processor brings us a step closer to the point where quantum computers will be used to tackle previously unsolvable problems,"

So we can reliably expect them to ship what they are promissing. However, there is still a massive skew between what QC brings to the table vs what the public (and investors) are expecting from it. At the current trend, anything QC-related is effectively guaranteed to qualify as vaporwave due to the public at large being mislead on the subject for so long.

I don't think that manages expectations well, the word "potential" is doing a lot of work.

Definitely over-hyped technology. Probably not a scam though.

There is definitely an argument to be made that this was an empty promise. Not necessarily enough to call it a "scam", but vaporware...

1. Does Watson incorporate any deep learning?

2. If not, why? Were disagreements based in business or theory?

A lot of their stuff does 1, but not 2.

And their mainframes, underhyped to the extreme, that more or less still run the world.

And the airlines, and the logistics companies

Two I can think of: SABRE and the IRS. See more here: https://www.nextgov.com/cxo-briefing/2016/05/10-oldest-it-sy...

Personally I have a ton of respect for production systems that can be scaled in place for 50 years. But I don't have any interest in learning to run IBM mainframes or code for them- I'm preparing for lots of contract work in 2037.

More or less, but less and less. Many a bank, airline, etc. has had or has or will have a "digital transformation"/move to cloud/rewrite apps/websites to actually be usable/etc. project to switch away from legacy stuff handicapping them to a more modern leaner tech stack. Mostly because they got shown by newer, leaner competition how it's done (neobanks, low-cost airlines) so finally there is some incentive. And of course the added benefits of commodity hardware (as a Service) being much more easily replaceable and scalable. If you're a big bank/airline, why would you spend billions on mainframes from a single vendor you're beholden to, with all the staffing problems (nobody knows this stuff so hiring is a nightmare), specced for the highest possible load you might get? Instead of throwing it on AWS which "everyone" knows and can scale up/down based on demand. Migrating isn't easy or cheap, but it makes so much sense.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power10

for an example that is current

[1] - https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.03137

> received copious media praise

That's the success criteria.

IBM makes money in lots of ways. The last few decades they've struggled with public perception, and an image of being "has-been". This has hurt their ability to get talent and enter new markets. Having your name next to neat, futuristic tech is a good way to counter that image. Even more so when it's things like Watson and Quantum computing that have real nerds doing actual fawning over the tech.