Motorola has just announced that it is working in close partnership with Internet giant Google to create a mobile phone that will be sold directly to consumers.

Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola, says the company plans to release 20 new smartphones this year including the aforementioned “direct to consumer device” in collaboration with Google. Ultimately, the partnership will produce a product similar to the Google Nexus One phone made by HTC.

The announcement comes on the heels of a poor fourth quarter performance from Motorola that saw the company’s sales slip as rival companies like Nokia and Apple both experienced an increase.

Motorola sales dropped by 20 per cent in the fourth quarter to $5.7 billion. Records for this time last year show company sales at $7.1 billion.

Jha says Motorola expects another hit in the first quarter, likely between a penny and three cents a share, as the company turns over a new leaf.

“We are just at the beginning stage of our transition to a smartphone company,” he says.

The fourth quarter was the first full quarter of the new Motorola mobile tactic built around the Google Android system. Of the 12 million phones the company sold during that time, two million of them were Android-operating smartphones such as the Motorola Droid.

Motorola’s poor fourth quarter performance seems especially worrying for the company as Nokia showed surprisingly strong sales results in the increasingly challenging market, and Apple experienced record-breaking iPhone sales.

The company has already cut 11,000 employees in an effort to lower operating costs and make up for disappointing mobile phone sales.

By Taylor Turner