Ipad 2 in stock, but only at Orange?

I think there’s something fishy going on, I’ve now spent 3 weeks running around and calling stored to find out about ipad 2 stocks and each week I’ve been given hope by stores and then nothing.

On one of my encounters at Jonn Lewis in High Wycombe, I asked a one member of staff and she told me that 20 ipads came in that day and sold that day, I went on to ask another sales assistant and he explained that apparently they don’t get ipad 2 deliveries on a Saturday, which didn’t add up to what his colleague told me a few minutes earlier.

Now I say I think there’s something fishy going on because, on my ipad 2 hunting days I realized that phone shops such as Fones4U had them in stock but would only sell them on locked networks, even though you’re expected to pay full price for the ipad unless you took out a contract.

I then decided to contact a friend who worked at Orange and he kept me posted on how much stock they where getting. It’s unbelievable, while there’s no stock to be found in any high street electrical stores including the Apple store, which yesterday said they have ipad 2’s but only the wifi versions, there was still stock coming into Orange mobile phone shops every other day, even today I got a call tell me there’s 10 ipads that just came into stock, so I called other stores such as John Lewis, PC World but they still have nothing.

So my question is, how comes Apple is delivering to Orange and not others? I know my friends not bullshitting, I’ve gone and seen the stock myself, the only reason I can’t go for the ones there are because they are locked to Orange and second I refuse to have a credit check done on an item which is on Pay As You Go and I’m paying full price for it.

**For people who are searching to find out if the ipad 2 is locked on Orange, the answer is YES and they're not very willing to unlock them, I reckon Orange should be reported to Apple, its not fair they charge full price on an Ipad and do a credit check on the customers while selling them a Pay As You Go Sim and then they have the cheek to lock the ipad to their own network**