Some observations regarding passwords and the App Store

It used to be that installing or upgrading an app, even free ones, required your inputting your AppleID. There would be a five- to ten-minute grace period during which you needn't enter it again, but afterwards you would be required to re-enter the password. Which made sense: No one wants unauthorized users to start buying up potentially expensive apps without permission.

This is still the case with the iPhone. What's surprising is that this is no longer the case with the iPad. Recently I've noticed that after a good day or two without accessing the App Store, updating apps no longer asks for my password. Given virtually all updates are free, I'm assuming this applies to (free) updates. INSTALLING free apps may or may not require the re-entering of passwords; I don't know, I haven't tried it yet. I'm certainly hoping that password re-entry will be required with paid apps. (Cue story of kid purchasing a $100 app on mom's iPad.)

I'm also assuming that the iPhone continues to ask for passwords -- (free) updates or not -- perhaps because as a truly mobile device, it needs to retain a bit more restrictiveness. I don't necessarily agree, since how much trouble can a free updates cause? (Unless of course you wanted to keep an older version for some reason.) As illustrated, the App Store on the iPad, at least, doesn't seem to require password re-entry anymore, at least for updates.

Is this something anyone else has observed, or is it only my iPad that's somehow affected?