Speaking at a Tokyo news conference to outline Sony's plans for dealing with the poor economic conditions around the world, he said the mobile device area would be a focus.

"We will tap our unique strengths in gaming, entertainment, digital imaging and telephony to fast track a line-up of next-generation mobile devices," he said. No other details were announced or available.

Sony already makes a number of mobile devices.

In the gaming sector it has the PlayStation Portable, which was launched five years ago. The handheld device initially failed to meet Sony's expectations but sales got a boost in 2008 with a slimmer model and attractive games.

On Friday Sony said it expects to ship 15 million PSPs in the financial year to the end of March. There's also Sony Ericsson, the joint-venture cell-phone maker, which shipped 96.6 million handsets in 2008, and brands some phones with the CyberShot or Bravia names.