Pownce: First impressions (and invites)

Whilest the Apple iPhone hype machine continues to churn onward, I thought I'd inject a bit of non-iPhone news into the stream, with a quick look (thanks to Chris Garrett) at a new social media application -- Pownce.

If you're familiar with Twitter or Jaiku, then you'll be right at home with Pownce. Adding friends, following people, etc, all seem to be taken from the same playbook. Pownce has also released a desktop client for Mac and Windows -- Linux to follow soon they say.

On first glance, here's two significant differences:

1. Calendaring, File transfer, and Link sharing. Pownce has them all.
2. Professional upgrades. Eliminates advertising and increases your file transfer size to 100mb.

So, will Pownce unseat Twitter as the leading micro-content format? Twitter has the 'first to the party' advantage. Jaiku is close on Twitter's heels, and with online mashup apps like TwitKu, this space is beginning to get a bit crowded.

How much attention do you have to spread between these contenders, and who will win? Time will tell, I guess.

In the mean time, I have a few Pownce invites to give away -- first come, first served

Update: Mashable has a very thorough overview.

Related posts:

1. Pownce just doesn’t do it for me
2. Nifty Hack: How to circumvent a firewall with Twitter, Jaiku, Twitku using Netvibes
3. 5 reasons why your boss will let you use Twitter at work
4. Another great example of networking and self promotion via Twitter
5. Linklist — July 30, 2007