[untog]

The owner can remove it, too. Marco Arment's iOS ad blocker is the most immediate example that comes to mind.

If an app is "completely gone", it probably has a good reason not to be there in the vast majority of cases.

Cold comfort to those who paid for said app.

[LeoNatan25]

Are you sure Arment's app does not appear in the "Purchased" history list? As I remember, unless you request a refund, it will appear there.

[nmcfarl]

I have an app that I love whose owner went out of business after removing the app from the store. I purchased it for my 3G,and since then I've had to manually transfer it from iTunes, until I switched to iCloud backups which have muddled the issue for me... Anyhow it shows up in "purchased" with an "open" button if it's on the device, and (my recollection is that it) just shows up with no button and no download icon if it is not.

[kalleboo]

It is. I just tested installing it on my iPad which didn't have it installed and it showed up and installed fine from "Purchased".