Motorola's CEO Ed Zander will not deliver a keynote at this year's CTIA wireless conference in Orlando, starting next week, according to RCR Wireless.

RCR reported that he suddenly dropped off the conference schedule, which had him scheduled to open the show Tuesday with AT&T's COO Randall Stephenson and Microsoft Senior Vice President Pieter Knook.

Motorola or CTIA offered no explanation as to the change in plans. RCR surmised it was because Zander was busy fixing the company, which has been under the gun for less than stellar financial performances. The company is also a proxy fight by investor Carl Icahn.

I might have guessed something was up. On Tuesday last week, I asked for some time to speak with Zander, who has increasing ties to the Seattle area. It spends quite a deal of time with Microsoft, first developing the Motorola Q and now other devices. It also owns a significant stake in Kirkland-based Clearwire after it invested $300 million in the WiMax company and purchased its equipment subsidiary for $47 million last August.

I was told that I could not get time with him. Now it makes a little more sense.