The eagerly waiting British lovers of the iPad will have to pay around £100 more than Americans for Apple’s iPad when it goes on sale in the UK next week.

According to the sources, prices will start at £429 for the cheapest version of the tablet computer, nearly £90 more than the US price of $499 converted at today’s exchange rate. For the most expensive version of the iPad, a 64 GB model offering wi-fi and 3G connections, the premium is more than £130.

The tablet computer will be available to pre-order online from May 2010 and will be in stores from May 28, following a delay which Apple blamed on “strong demand” in the US.

If we look into the history, Apple has always set UK prices higher than in the US, blaming the “cost of doing business” in Britain.

Simultaneously, Orange set out how it will charge customers buying an iPad with 3G capability.

Users will pay £2 a day, with a 200MB allowance, or £7.50 a week, with 1GB of usage, to connect to Orange’s network. It will also offer two monthly contracts, pitched at £15 and £25, with different download caps.

Orange has also unveiled an unusual per-megabyte pricing model that will allow users to pay 5p per MB they use. The pricing model is different to traditional pre-pay packages for mobile and dongle users and harks back to the days of dial-up internet where consumers paid whenever they connected to the network rather than upfront.