Quantum computers promise to solve computational challenges beyond the reach of current supercomputers in a range of application areas from cryptography to materials science. While as a theoretical concept, they have been considered for more than 30 years, and research labs around the world have been trying to build them for at least 15 years, the last few years have seen a rapid increase of the pace of development both in the hardware and our understanding of algorithms and applications of quantum computers. In this talk, I will review the basic tenets of quantum computing, survey the current status of the field and attempt an outlook on what the first problems will be that quantum computers will solve.