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Rumors swirled over Nokia’s potential purchase of Palm which sent Palm’s stock up and caused analysts to take a step back to see how this might play out.  If Nokia is shelling out the cash for Palm, estimated at a $3 Billion deal, then it must have a very real problem.  The problem: entry into the US market.

Nokia is bigger than big.  They pump out 13 phones every second.  They own 40% of the world’s mobile phone marketshare and have 1.1 billion customers.  Nothing could be better, right?  Well, not in the US.

In the US, Nokia is still struggling to find a win.  They’ve got phones at major carriers but nothing to drive people to these them.  There is no wow factor with their current offerings.  Nokia’s smartphones can’t seem to get a foot in the door while running Euro-popular Symbian and Maemo as both seem to fall into Apple’s shadow.

Would Palm add more than a brand name for Nokia?  Analysts say Palm adds a “solid name” to the pot, but not much else, despite moving almost 1 million Palm Pre phones.  Having another OS to deal with would present some issues for Nokia, particularly back home in Europe where Symbian is top dog.

Motorola’s name gets put into the ring as well as a potential suitor.  Moto’s struggled over the past years but their new MotoBlur skin atop Google’s Android looks to be a winner (even winning over Moto-disliker Iyaz, our editor).  Perhaps Moto would add webOS to their top end while the Blur OS would live, quite happily, at the mass level?

In a move, perhaps to get Nokia to show its hand, Palm announced the intention for an IPO.  You might recall how much Palm hated being publicly traded, saying it added too much to the stress level.  Perhaps they have no choice.  In any event, things are moving quickly for the little company.

Read: [Computer World] and [Wall Street Journal]