Is a world of application segmenting upon us?

Best of the blogs: In deploying Google Apps for 165 of its 2,500 customer server agents, Capgemini is “segmenting users making a decision on which application to deploy based on what best suits that group,” Ephraim Schwartz writes in this Reality Check post. Schwartz explains that although all 80,000 Capgemini employees need word processing, they don’t all need the same application — particularly not when there is a low-cost choice available. In this case, Google Apps will cost Capgemini $50 per user per year. “Google Apps may not answer all a company’s needs. That is the point I’m trying to make. But with little need for support, a low barrier to training and enough capability to keep a large segment of the company happy, we will see segmentation not only in productivity applications but in other kinds of applications as well.

The news beat: IBM details Blue Cloud, its initiative to turn datacenters into computing clouds such that resources are available wherever needed. Apple patches a whopping 41 bugs in Mac OS X, 10 in Safari and upgrades several other applications. Michael Dell foretells of a reference architecture to help customers go green and makes the bold proclamation that his company will be carbon-neutral by next year’s end. And Oracle CEO Larry Ellison describes the next iteration of Fusion, which will bring what he calls second-generation sales force applications.

Tech’s bottom line: Everyone knows the market is not always rational — and the way in which Apple and VMware took the rap for Cisco’s warning and Oracle’s virtualization announcement proves it. “Part of the reason for the slide: momentum players. These are hedge funds and other institutions that trade directionally over the short run. When a stock moves down, short sellers can get into the game, and suddenly the stock is really tumbling,” Bill Snyder writes in Don’t get caught in the stampede. “Take a deep breath and look closely before you sell. Indeed, the dip in VMware’s value might well have been an opportunity to buy some shares at a nice discount.”