Recently, we wrote about how EA Mobile is working with PNY to bundle mobile games with memory cards, albeit by getting users to connect to a WAP site to download them.

Now another firm is touting the idea of card+games, although using a different model. Israeli startup mPortico actually has games and other content preloaded on cards, and has so far raised $4.1 million of funding to roll out its technology.

"We have created an application that sits on a memory card, preloaded with content," says CEO Shimon Constante.

"We are working with content providers like I-play and Airbourne Entertainment. The cards sell through big-box retailers, and when someone sticks a card into their phone, it recognises what model they have, and only installs the correct content for that phone."

That means for games, loading up the memory cards with between 120 and 200 different ports of every single game, then once the correct version has been installed on the handset, deleting the others.

Besides giving users more space on the card for their own content, this presumably aims to reassure publishers worried about their games being pirated.

Not all the games preloaded on these cards are free, however. Some have to be paid for.

"The application itself is an Apple App Store kind of user interface," says Constante. "When you go in, some games are open, while others are locked - so you can click to purchase the games that are locked using premium SMS."

Constante says mPortico will sell the cards for the same price as their content-free equivalents - so a 1GB card preloaded with mPortico's app and content will cost the same as a regular 1GB card.

The one hole in the theory is backfill - what happens about games for phones released after one of mPortico's memory cards goes into retail?

Constante says that connectivity is built into the company's application, so if users have a handset not covered by the 120-200 ports on a card, they can connect to download the right version.

"We are working diligently with our content providers to update in real-time with all the new ports that they have," he says, citing other partners including Real Dice, OrangePixel and Venan Entertainment.

"This opportunity is very interesting to most game providers. In terms of the business model, we're using different models with different content providers. We're very flexible, and we think that besides paid-for revenues, advertising will also become a huge part of our application."

It's certainly an intriguing initiative, although it remains to be seen if more mid-tier and large mobile game publishers sign up with mPortico.