Motorola’s CEO has confirmed that the company is developing a “consumer device” in partnership with Google.

While announcing Moto’s fourth-quarter financial results – we’ll zip through those in a minute — Sanjay Jha said the company will launch “at least one direct-to-consumer device with Google” in 2011.

The CEO’s comment has since sparked furious online speculation that Motorola will manufacture Google’s second Nexus One – the Nexus Two, perhaps? HTC is the company behind the recently launched Nexus One.

Sadly, Jha did not elaborate any further on his bold statement.

Just days after Motorola launched its Android-based Milestone handset in October last year, Jha promised that the company would launch 20 smartphones during 2010. He didn’t say how many would be Android based.

And so to Moto’s Q4 results. The company made a profit of $142m (£87.9m) for the three-month period ended 31 December 2009, based on sales of $5.7bn (£3.5bn).

Sales of mobile devices alone generated $1.8bn (£1.1bn) – a drop of 22 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2008. The company shifted 2m smartphones globally during the period. ®