3Com's move this week to spin out part of its Palm Computing subsidiary was met with enthusiasm from some of the IT industry's largest players, suggesting that Palm's software platform may appear in a bevy of devices in the coming months.

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3Com announced Tuesday it has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering. The makers of the popular handheld organizers will now be officially known as Palm Inc.

"The spin off has been expected all year. It's a natural move for 3Com and Palm, and it continues their momentum," said Diana Hwang, handheld PC analyst for research firm, International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass.

On the heels of the IPO announcement, America Online, Nokia, and Motorola confirmed they have all agreed to purchase as much as 4.5 percent of Palm's total stock, an investment upwards of $225 million. The three will pay the initial offering price for their shares.

Furthermore, Motorola said Tuesday it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Palm to license its operating system for use in future Motorola wireless products.

"The MOU announces a close relationship with Palm, and our intentions to design products using the Palm technology platform. The next stage is to actually sign the agreement, which I believe should happen soon," said Motorola Communications Director Bott Ikeler.

If the agreement goes through, Motorola plans to use the Palm technology on top of the EPOC operating system for wireless information devices. Last year, Motorola became a shareholder in Symbian., a joint venture promoting EPOC along with Finland's Nokia Oy, Sweden's L.M. Ericsson Telephone, the U.K.'s Psion, and Japan's Matsushita Electrical Industrial.

"Our research has found that, particularly in Europe, there is a strong preference for Symbian-based products, and Palm is very popular within the U.S., so the combination is strong", Ikeler said.

Ikeler declined to comment on specific plans for Motorola products that will use Palm technology, citing a "quiet period" that 3Com and Palm have entered following the IPO announcement.

Other companies that have licensed the Palm platform, including IBM and Qualcomm, have typically blended features in the original Palm with capabilities suited to the particular markets they are addressing.

Both Nokia and Handspring, for example, have been separately developing new products that use Palm technology. Handspring demonstrated its handheld Visor in New York last October. The product, priced between $149 to $249, runs many of the same applications as Palm's own handheld computers, including an address book, memo pad, expense tracker, and e-mail manager. The Visor also includes an "expansion slot" that can be used to support additional features like MP3 playback and wireless communications.

At Telecom 99 in Geneva last October, Nokia announced it had licensed the Palm OS to develop pen-based wireless devices that can run Palm applications on top of the EPOC 32 kernel from Symbian. The first Nokia pen-based phones are expected on the U.S. market in 2001.

The willingness of 3Com to license the Palm technology, as well as its coupling with the EPOC platform, helps to build widespread support for the platform, potentially at the expense of Microsoft's Windows CE operating system for consumer devices. Such a move helps Palm to avoid the problem Apple Computer faced in the 1980s when protection of its proprietary operating system brought the company close to extinction.

"Palm continues to come out with strong products, and has also been developing partnerships to ensure that their platform is out there. Palm is definitely the market leader in the U.S.," IDC's Diana Hwang said.

But Palm must avoid diluting its strength with too many products and too many partners, Hwang said. "They need to be careful, keep their focus, and not spread themselves too thin in the future," Hwang said.

3Com Corp., in Santa Clara, Calif., is at www.3com.com. Palm Computing Inc., in Santa Clara, Calif., is at www.palm.com. Motorola Inc., based in Schaumburg, Ill., is at www.mot.com. Nokia Oy, in Helsinki, is at www.nokia.com. Handspring Inc., in Mountain View, Calif., is at www.handspring.com.