This review focuses on the history and current state of the art optoelectronic applications of quantum dots involving light emission. We focus mainly on three areas of commercial, or potential commercial interest, including quantum dot light emitting devices (QLEDs, sometimes called QD-LEDs), lasing applications, and quantum computing applications. The main connection between these areas is the development of the science and engineering needed to achieve electrical excitation of the quantum dot in an optoelectronic device in order to achieve emission with characteristics particularly suited to the application in question. Due to the special physics of quantum dots, these materials are particularly well suited for both existing commercial applications, and potentially for future applications, such as single photon sources, spin cubits, or polarized emission. We conclude with an analysis of the future prospects for these exciting materials. Given 30 years of progress since the Nobel Prize winning work on monodisperse samples of QDs, our goal is to highlight the current start of the art, discuss the current issues for each technology, and suggest future goals for the next 30 years for quantum dot research.