This morning, Laini called me over that there's something wrong with her iPad. Every time she launched the iTunes app (she has a $10/month allowance and today it refilled) it opened the App Store app instead. I had her bring it over to me, and sure enough, click "iTunes" and it flashes for a second and switches over to App Store, using the same animated motion as I see on my iOS 4 iPhone when you use fast app switching.
I shut down the iPad completely and restarted. No difference. Her iPad has parental restrictions turned on, but nothing in those settings would cause this behavior. In an effort to avoid restoring the device, I hit the internet. Nothing came up in Google searches, so I searched just the Apple forums and found this thread which nailed the problem and the solution:
You have launch iTunes and quickly press and hold the music button before it switches. If you catch it in time, iTunes will open normally from then on. No idea why it happens but that is what I did and been fine since.
It took me 2 tries to get my finger on the right spot in time, but sure enough it works.
Seems the issue goes in the other direction as well. And here's another thread on the problem which solves it with a reset/resync (not restore), I think the other way is easier.
Judi Sohn 
7 responses to “iPad: strange redirect bugs?”
That seems like a wacky kind of bug.
I’ve been hit with that bug. It took me 30 minutes of experimentation before, to your point, I hit a button on the page quickly before the redirection. No idea what caused it. It’s an odd beast.
It happened to me as well. Thanks for the Music icon catch trick, worked for me. It was so weird, every time I was redirected to the review page of AWESOME NOTE app in app store.
wow that worked, thanks so much had trouble finding the answer anywhere but here!
Thanks a bunch for this post. Got this odd bug today and your post had me back and running 10 minutes later.
Thanks to your post I was able to fix this annoyance quickly.
It worked! Thank you