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From the WSJ blogs

Those snubbed by Apple CEO Steve Jobs take heart. He won’t return calls from Gary Shapiro, who heads the world’s largest consumer electronics industry trade group.

Shapiro is chief executive of the Consumer Electronics Association, the same group that puts on the Consumer Electronics Show each January for the last three decades. The Consumer Electronics Association says that Apple has been invited to attend the convention. Apple declined to comment.

At a dinner with journalists this week in San Francisco, CEA’s Shapiro was asked whether he’s invited Jobs, who recently returned from medical leave, to keynote the show. Yes, Jobs has been asked, but nobody from Apple has gotten back to him, Shapiro said.

This isn’t the first time he’s contacted Jobs and not gotten a response, he said. The journalists at the table took note of a fellow traveler in their midst — Jobs provides very few interviews. ‘I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one in that position,’ Shapiro then said.

Despite Apple’s star power, Shapiro has modest goals for next show’s attendance, that being matching last year’s. Attendance at CES ‘09 fell around 20%, as recession-weary companies slashed marketing and travel budgets. CES attendance, in some circles, is an unofficial but prescient forecast of consumer spending.

Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Intel CEO Paul Otellini say they will provide keynotes at the show.

UPDATE: Apple isn’t exhibiting at CES 2010, the CEA confirmed, quashing an earlier assertion from a Wall Street Journal blogger.

(Via WSJ blogs)