Rumors have been flying through the Android community for months that Verizon was going to private label their own Android tablet. Now they’ve officially announced the new 7″ tablet, which they are saying is the first device in a family of Verizon produced devices called Ellipsis.

The tablet, which according to The Verge, will sport a 1280×800 7 inch IPS display, 8GB of storage, 1GB of RAM and a 1.2 ghz quad-core processor, will set customers back $249 off contract. This makes it price competitive with the Google Nexus 7 tablet which is only $229 direct from Google. The tablet will feature a 4G LTE radio for Verizon’s 4G LTE network, but keep in mind the $249 price tag is without subsidy. Being that it’s their own tablet they could discount and bundle the tablet as they please.

Of course Verizon hasn’t opened up a factory in New Jersey next to their corporate headquarters. They are using an ODM manufacturer although it’s not known which one.

Curiously, this pits Verizon against manufacturers that sell their devices on the nation’s largest wireless carrier. Verizon Wireless currently sells tablets from Samsung, Motorola, HTC and of course Apple. The motivation behind selling their own private labeled hardware is unclear.

Still, we can’t wait to see what other devices end up in this Ellipsis device family. The Ellipsis 7 will feature access to Verizon’s RedBox streaming service which is a joint venture between Verizon Wireless and Redbox.

The table will be available for purchase at Verizon Wireless stores and certain Verizon Wireless third party retailers on Thursday.