No, it's never been discussed ever.
I believe this is working as intended. A lot of people have it set up so that typing that password is the only thing between the device and their credit card. I.e., nothing is stopping someone else from getting ahold of your device and buying a $200 medical app.
I don't think anyone here actually read the OP. He has this problem when ENTERING the app store, not just when installing something. That could get real annoying.
As for a solution: I used to have this problem on my iPhone from time to time. Sometimes it is the result of an app not fully downloading from the App Store because of some sort of error that occurred in processing the transaction. When you tried downloading an app in the past did it give you a warning message saying you might want to try downloading it from iTunes on a computer? Sometimes that can cause the thing to loop the password box. First try hard-resetting the device (hold home and sleep/wake button for 10 seconds). If that doesn't work, and you can remember which apps you installed around the time of the error, try reinstalling those from an iTunes sync if possible. Heck, an iTunes sync alone could potentially fix the problem, without replacing the apps. I can't fully remember what caused it to go away for me, but these are a few of the things I remember trying.
I believe this is working as intended. A lot of people have it set up so that typing that password is the only thing between the device and their credit card. I.e., nothing is stopping someone else from getting ahold of your device and buying a $200 medical app.
yalag said:Every time I launch the appstore it forgets my password and reasks it. It's not even when I try to download something, it asks as soon as I launch the appstore. Same goes for ibook store etc. Is this normal? Anyone else experience this?
Mine's doing this also. I have no pending downloads in iTunes or any apps that appear to be hanging (not greyed out and no status bar). I've done a hard reset, synched, and worked with my settings. I even deleted my podcasts, books and some recreant apps to no avail. I don't have this problem with my iPhone and my husband's iPad doesn't do this either.