Nexus Two allegedly spotted in the wild. But is Google really readying a new phone?

Nexus Two, a successor to the Google Nexus One, is being prepared by Samsung, one blogger reported today. Others aren't so sure.

Nexus Two is coming! Or: Nexus Two isn't coming anytime soon, and it won't even be called the Nexus Two!

Take your pick.

This morning, Gizmodo – the same tech blog that published photographs of the iPhone 4, long before the it shelves – released a report on what it said was the latest Google handset. The Samsung-built phone, which Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan identified as the "Nexus Two," will apparently ship with a forward-facing camera and a 4-inch AMOLED screen similar to the one on the Samsung Galaxy series.

A couple of hours later, analyst Sascha Segan took to PC Mag to refute the Gizmodo rumor: Google is readying a replacement for the Nexus One, Segan confirmed. But after calling around to his "own set of shadowy, unnamed sources," Segan learned the phone "may not be called Nexus Two," and it may not be revealed by Google for quite some time.

"Excitement about the 'Nexus Two' comes in part from geeks who hope the phone will ship with 'stock Android,' which is Google's default build with no carrier or manufacturer extensions," Segan wrote. "An added frisson comes from the speculative idea that it will be the first phone with the next version of Android, known as Gingerbread."

The first Google phone, the Nexus One, was built by HTC, and released in January. The phone received a warm reception from critics, but Google reportedly sold only 135,000 Nexus One handsets in the first 74 days the phone was available – not enough to qualify it for iPhone-foil status. In May, Google began offering the Nexus One – which was previously available exclusively online – in selected retail outlets, in an attempt to gin up interest in the phone.

And then, over the summer, Google apparently pulled the plug on its phone completely.