News Corp.'s First "Daily" Ad Is Missing One Word, And It Begins With "I"

News Corp. worked very hard to get Apple’s assistance and endorsement as it launched the Daily. But even though I (and lots of other folks) refer to the Daily as an “iPad newspaper,” it’s not going to be exclusive to Apple’s tablet forever.

Note that the Daily’s first TV commercial, launched during the Super Bowl tonight, never mentions the word “Apple” or “iPad” once–even though it certainly appears to be using an iPad to show off the publication.

During the Daily’s press launch last week, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch was clear that the Daily would eventually make its way to other platforms–Google’s Android, obviously–but said something along the lines of “the iPad is going to be the dominant platform for us for a while.” (News Corp. also owns this Web site).

Here’s Engadget’s on-the-fly transcript of Murdoch’s comments: “We’ve been quite honest with Apple, and we’ll be on all major tablets. But we think last year, this year, and next year will belong to the iPad.”

So if that’s the case, why wouldn’t News Corp. use the name of one of the world’s most popular companies, and/or one of its most popular products, to add a halo to its own product launch?

It’d be fun to speculate–Did Apple not give permission? Did News Corp. not want to scare off consumers dead set on a Xoom? Some other issue? But there are a couple of minutes left in the game, and I want to get back to it before it ends. Perhaps someone from the Daily can explain tomorrow.