Is there any reason why an iPad2 purchased in the US would not function in Switzerland? I can't think of any myself, apart from any incompatabilities with mains charging etc.

I am using my dutch Ipad2, works fine here

This is not my area of expertise, but I can tell you that my husband's Ipad2 did bought in the us did not work here. He went to orange and had to sign up for swiss account. It is something like 30chf/month with a 2 year contract and they made him pay a deposit of 400-500chf because he is not a swiss citizen (probably EU would have been ok, but he's from the US). He offered to prepay the 2 year contract rather than do the deposit and they wouldn't let him. The whole process took over an hour. Then it didn't actually work and he had to go back to orange AGAIN (he's quite technically savvy so I have to believe him that orange didn't set it up right). To top it off, it only works in Switzerland and we've been in Italy and France the past 2 weeks. Extremely frustrating and expensive.

OK, but I'm not interested in 3G network accessibility, purely Wifi at home and in available hotspots. Did it work otherwise, ie for browsing, Apps etc? MAybe I should have made myself a lttle clearer.

I think it did work ok on wifi. I will check with him and let you know but hopefully someone else more knowledgable than me will help in the meantime.

Works perfectly...

Like you said there is no reason it won't work. They are all made in the same factory with the same hardware to the same specification.

That's encourgaing then. iPad2 16GB in the US retails for $499, that's Sfr. 405.- at the current exchange rate. Same iPad2 in CH retails for Sfr. 545.-, and my BiL in NY will be joining us in Barbados . Still not sure if he'd be willing to buy it for us yet, and have not run it past the wife as yet....

Don't forget that you'll be using it when you come to Switzerland, not importing it. *cough*.

Yes take tons of pictures with it on Barbados so it will be "used" and load it up with apps (you can always remove them later and also bring a laptop with Itunes so you can start it up overthere) .... Have you checked the prices on Barbados?

Of course not...

I'll be frantically installing Apps and taking hundreds of photos whilst on hols.

You need to import some photos that you previously took in Switzerland

My US-purchased ipod Touch works fine here incuding no problems working with the localised i-tunes.

Surely the serial number of the IPad will show which country it has been bought in??

Yes, if you have facebook just drag them in your Iphoto

Your biggest concern should be:

1) Going on holiday with your Brother in law. Why?

2) If your warranty will be okay. Might be an idea to phone the apple store here and see if they will service it. Don't see why not...but best to be safe

Will work. We bought both of ours on Amazon and no problem at all connecting to our wifi. Apple makes them so they will work anywhere.

It's not just the BiL, it's the wife's ENTIRE family

Bought one there two weeks ago (LAX, actually). Dirt cheap. It works fine over here.

Naturally, though, I was informed 3 days after returning from my vacation that my coworker and I had jointly won an iPad2 through a contest at work... figures.

OK, so it seems from a technical point of view, it's all go. The remaining questions for me are:
1. Convincing the wife we need one
2. Will the BiL be willing to make the purchase?
3. Will he have any problems bringing it into Barbados?

And those, my dear friends, only I have an inkling or the wherewithall to solve.

Maybe BIL can hook it up to his Itunes so that it looks used while entering Barbados