A new Dublin firm has given the humble Christmas card a 21st-century makeover and introduced the "mobi-card", a full-colour, customisable greeting that can be sent to a recipient's mobile phone, writes John Collins.

In common with many traditional Christmas cards, a portion of the price will be donated to charity: in this case, 10 cent of the 60 cent cost will go to the Dublin Simon Community.

The company, iText, provides a publishing platform that enables non-technical users to create and manage mobile websites and marketing campaigns.

"I was walking through the city thinking, 'how can we launch our name to the public?', when I saw some homeless people on the street," said iText founder and managing director David Gillick. "We had the platform coded up so I thought why not create a mobi-card and help the homeless?"

The technology uses wireless application protocol (WAP), which means the recipient is sent a link via a text message, which they can then click on to open a webpage displaying their card.

The iText website (www.itext.ie) currently offers two cards, each of which has a choice of four pictures, with additional designs being added in the run-up to Christmas. Users can also add their own images, something Mr Gillick said he felt would be popular with corporate customers who may want to include company logos or other branding.

Mr Gillick said the mobi-card saved time and money and was also more eco-friendly than sending traditional paper cards. He added that it was unlikely that the service would be used for spam, due to the cost of each message and the fact that people only send cards to people with whom they already have some contact.

The company provides its platform free of charge to community and voluntary groups.

The four-person firm has been funded to date by Mr Gillick, who has extensive experience in the technology industry, but it is currently seeking venture capital investment.