Sony sold 6.5 mn games devices in holiday season

LAS VEGAS, USA: Sony Corp sold 6.5 million games machines during the holiday season, including the PlayStation 3 console and the newly launched PS Vita handheld device, a senior executive said at an industry event.

The company's second-in-command, Kazuo Hirai, was speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the industry's biggest get-together.

Separately, the Japanese electronics giant said its smartphone division would operate under the brand name Sony Mobile Communications, following its buyout of Ericsson's share of their mobile phone joint venture for 1.05 billion euros.

The newly branded unit's first offerings will include the Xperia ion, which features high speed LTE connectivity and a 12 megapixel camera.

Sony also showed off a Google TV controller incorporating a microphone for voice search capabilities, an increasingly popular feature after the launch of Apple's  Siri voice control system for the iPhone 4S.