Woohoo! I was just talking about the trouble iPhone/iPod/iPad users go through when updating the devices. All data is erased and you have to sync everything back in. Many times it takes quite a long time to do that. Then I decided to update to iOS 4.3b3, I had the time. To my surprise, there was no syncing after the update. It took a bit longer than usual (about 15 minutes), but the data was still in the device! Great!
Now all we need is firmware loading over-the-air and the removal of iTunes activation and we're on par with Nokia!