MOBshop Speculation Is Red Hot

Not since the frenzy over Cold Fusion, or perhaps, the pre-reveal hype surrounding the invention that came to be known as the Segway, has there been excitement in the tech community to match that around Cyriac Roeding's stealth venture MOBshop (f/k/a Cross Platform Corp). OK, perhaps I exaggerate a bit, however, the former CBS Mobile Head and recent Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers Entrepreneur in Residence must have had a major epiphany during his well documented post-CBS worldwide walkabout...because money ($2.5mil so far) & talented people (including his CBS successor Jeff Sellinger) are aggressively chasing this new venture. Kleiner Perkins is taking a particularly keen interest as lead investor and by taking 2 board seats. Former LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman, who's also investing and allegedly not prone to hyperbole, told TechCrunch's Michael Arrington yesterday that the venture was "extraordinarily interesting" (Segway...right?). Based on the name, speculation is that it's a mobile shopping play and not just for mobile goods (no one is going to get excited about another app store or Jamster). My guess is that it's an on device application that uses mobile payment tools like Boku (which I reported on last month) & context (location, time, etc.) specific information to facilitate transactions...but who knows, maybe it's a personal hovercraft that runs on water.