Taking advantage of the iPad after glow, Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha says among the 20 smartphones coming from Motorola this year, one will be a "direct to consumer device with Google." Google began offering devices direct to consumers earlier this year with the HTC-built Nexus One.

"We are just at the beginning stage of our transition to a smartphone company," Jha quipped on the quarterly earnings call, aiming to take some of the sting from a 20% YoY sales loss. Motorola's news came on the heels of positive earnings from both Apple and Nokia, which continue to devour market share.

The Motorola-built Google phone is thought to be codenamed the Shadow, a render of which can be seen above.

Motorola also revealed that of the 12 million phones sold in Q4 and of those 16%, or 2 million, were Android-powered (the Verizon DROID and the T-Mobile CLIQ). Motorola is looking to the future through Android domination, as the Google OS has proved to be a bright spot in an otherwise aged line up of phones.

Earlier this month, Motorola said it plans to launch an online app store for its Android OS phones in China despite Google's uneasy position in the country. Motorola made a deal with Baidu, China's most popular search engine, and will offer a choice on Motorola devices for search engine preferences. A choice is not offered in other countries where Google is the default. The bold move forward suggests Motorola believes it can move Android into China, even without Google's support.