A little surprised to see that this is the first new out of MOBIVOX over the last few months, especially with Truphone making headlines and all of the new surrounding the pending sale of Jangl and TalkPlus, both of whom get lumped into the same “Voice 2.0″ classification as MOBIVOX.

The newly localized service will bring Mandarin speakers a simple-to-use Web site for initial registration, and an easily understood interactive voice response (IVR) application that recognizes callers and asks for the desired number to reach, all in their native language.

Mandarin-speaking users in over 40 countries need only call their local MOBIVOX access number to reach the IVR and enter the number they want to call. They can also enter the name of a registered contact using the phone’s keypad, if they have previously entered the name on their Mobivox registration site. Chinese-written names can be entered through Pinyin.

China certainly is a large market and cell phone usage is substantial in Asian countries, though this is still an unexpected announcement.