(To be fair, other carriers are guilty of this, too -- but the Xoom's a Verizon device, so we'll focus our bloatware-induced rage at them for today.)

The Motorola Xoom, amazingly, escaped the production line unscathed by the claws of Verizon's bloatware beast. The tablet does come with the standard suite of Google's Android apps, such as Gmail, Maps, Places, and Latitude. But when you're buying an Android device, you expect that; these apps are essentially part of the Android operating system, and with the exception of maybe Latitude, they're pretty damn good. Visual Voicemail? Not so much.

Now, the Xoom does have a bit of bloatware, but only in the form of two preloaded games: Cordy and Dungeon Defenders. Back at Google's , the Android team talked about plans for including tablet-optimized games on the Xoom. The practice wouldn't bother me as much if the programs could be easily removed -- both Cordy and Dungeon Defenders are oddly designated as "system applications" -- but they're still far less objectionable than the useless upsell-driven clutter like City ID and V Cast Media Manager.

The only other unusual thing I've noticed lurking in the Xoom's storage is a small collection of music -- a couple dozen MP3s, all of which can be easily deleted. I guess it's an aural starter pack of sorts, designed specifically for the kind of person who likes Cheap Trick, Kenny Chesney, and Los Lonely Boys (sorry, guys -- no Bieber).

All in all, it's a welcome surprise to see a largely meddle-free precedent being set for the new generation of . Here's hoping the trend continues.