Going by a recent report in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Japanese giant Sony is looking to refute Apple’s claim of being the world’s foremost mobile device company – by planning an array of new devices and services to go up against Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iTunes Store!

The strategic move that Sony is planning largely revolves around Sony Online Service; together with smartphone and tablet-like devices connecting to it. Essentially to be an online media platform, Sony Online Service will likely offer not only music and video content, but also Sony’s back-catalog of PlayStation games.

As per Sony claims, the Sony Online Service, a potential iTunes Store rival, will deliver content to a wide range of devices - including PCs, PlayStation 3s, PSPs, and Internet-enabled HDTVs and Blu-Ray players.

Furthermore, the WSJ report specified that Sony is working on an entirely new line of handhelds, which will also include an iPhone-like “PSP phone” with the capability to download and play PSP games; as well as a ‘multifunctional’ iPad contender that “blurs distinctions among a netbook, an e-reader and a PSP.”

Though the planned initiatives form a part of the Sony CEO Howard Stringer’s arrangement to turn the company around after the downturn, analyst Nobuo Kurahashi, at Japanese brokerage Mizuho Investors Securities, said that Sony’s new moves come at a time “when iPad and other highly capable mobile devices are crowding the market.”