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If you remember back about a week ago, we saw the iPhone alert about how we would have to repurchase apps that were previously purchased if it was done over the network connection. Of course, even at the time it seemed a little strange, however according to some detective work from the crew over at AppAdvice we know now there was a simple explanation.

And by simple, I really mean a nice explanation, one that means you will not have to repurchase any previously purchased apps. Anyway, according to the details, the users were getting this message because of a tie in with iTunes 8.2, which of course was not available at the time this message began showing up for some users.

It seems that iTunes 8.2 needs to authorize your iPhone along with its apps in terms of purchases as well as apps that were received with promo codes. Now instead of seeing a popup alert that mentions having to buy the app again, you should get one that says “you have already purchased this item. To download it again for free, select OK.”

Bottom line, this was about cutting off any ability to share apps between unauthorized iPhones and not getting a few extra bucks from users who download, pay for and then delete apps from their own iPhone.