Before I tell you my assessment of this, I'll tell you about the interview. I had a great conversation with Jeff on his first day "off", his first day not employed by Palm Computing or 3Com. We've transcribed and reprinted that conversation in it's entirety in this issue (minus a few confidential "off-the-record" comments). It's probably the most important article you need to read in this issue of PalmPower.

So what does Jeff's resignation mean to the future of the Palm platform? And isn't it strange that the two founders should suddenly bail? What's it all mean?

First, I don't think we're going to see any discernable impact on the Palm platform for quite some time. By virtue of manufacturing and production requirements, hardware is designed well in advance of reaching the market.

In other words, if they operate like any other hardware company, 3Com already has the next generation of the Palm platform well into the engineering stages (and possibly even pre-manufacturing). And even the follow-on generation is probably getting some work. This means that we can assume that Jeff will have influenced at least the next two or three years of Palm platform devices (and in the interview, he tells us he may have influenced up through five years out).

Interestingly, it's not clear (even to him), whether 3Com/Palm will be inplementing much of his plan. He said as much in the interview. So that leaves us with the first question: just how much real influence did the Palm platform's inventor have at 3Com? We've been told he was the chief visionary, but we've also been told that he had no direct reports. Just how frustrating would that be to an entrepreneur who previously had an entire 28-person team?

The party line is that the parting was amicable. In fact, Jeff really stressed how important it was to him that people know it wasn't an acrimonious "breakup". We've been told that Jeff and Donna have licensed the PalmOS for use in some future device. And as the team that created the fastest growing consumer device in history, it's pretty clear that investment money will be readily available. We may see some really cool stuff coming from the J&D team.

But what really happened? Is there some juicy gossip? Honestly, I don't know. But I'd guess that there is probably some truth in all of the speculation. 3Com is one big-ass company and it's bound to have some serious, but necessary bureaucracy. Did Jeff want to build something that 3Com didn't? Did 3Com want to build something that Jeff didn't like or in a way he didn't approve of? Did the bureaucracy prove stiffling? Did he spend way too much time in meetings and way too little time getting things done? Or did they just all miss the small-company comraderie and environment?

I've been an entreprenuer and top-fish of my small pond for eleven years. If I were in Jeff and Donna's shoes, I'm sure all of the above would have been somewhat true at some time or another. I'd certainly enjoy the bucks and economic power of the parent company, but I even get restless in meetings I call. So I could certainly imagine that after a bunch of years supporting the parent company, Jeff and Donna needed some fresh air.