Lost all contacts after v3 upgrade iPhone

Had the same problem and nothing I tried restored them. I had to sync them in from Outlook.
Macbook Pro Mac OS X (10.5.2)

This is unacceptable! This update should be transparent to users and should not effect any contacts. Apple should be ashamed of missing such a BIG problem in the upgrade process...upgrade testers didnt notice this? COME ON!
I also attempted to restore from the backup and got zip. So I ask, what is the point of my backup if Im just gonna lose everything anyway? ****, Im ******!

It is transparent to the overwhelming majority, but it is impossible for a major update to be without a problem for 100%. All Windows users certainly dont install all Microsoft updates without any problems, but the updates are problem free for the overwhelming majority.
The iPhones backup includes quite a bit of data, so it isnt a good idea to depend on the backup alone for this data. The iPhone is designed to be synced with a supported application on your computer for contact info. How do you get by without having your contact info available on your computer anyway? And what did you do in regards to your contact inf before the iPhone? Manually enter all contact info on your cell phone? If so, what would have happened if your cell phone was lost or stolen?
 PowerBook G4 17-inch/1.67GHz/2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.5.7) 7200rpm-100GB HD,  iPod w/Video 30GB,  iPhone 3G 16GB

Yes Allan I typed in all the contacts and build it up manually since i got the phone, near the launch date. I was under the impression that every time I synced the phone it was backing up my data. Thats what the Nokia sync does. Doesnt Itunes do the same?
And Itunes specifically asked me if I wanted to backup before the update and I clicked yes. It took a while to do it too - which is reassuring. Whats the point if I cant get it back.
I would gladly enter them all again if I could see a list of them.
And if the phone were lost or stolen, I would expect to plug in a new phone, hit sync and have all my apps, music, CONTATCS and SMSs etc put back for me. Because thats what syncing does.
Or didnt for me.
PowerBook 17

What is the point? Copied from my previous post.
The iPhones backup includes quite a bit of data, so it isnt a good idea to depend on the backup alone for this data. The iPhone is designed to be synced with a supported application on your computer for contact info.
Something apparently went wrong with your iPhones backup in regards to your iPhones contact info - especially if all other data that is included with your iPhones backup was restored. If you synced contacts with a supported application on your computer as designed, this wouldnt be a problem since the contacts would be available with the supported application on your computer.
Photos in your iPhones camera roll are included with your iPhones backup, but this doesnt mean the photos shouldnt be imported by your computer as with any other digital camera.
 PowerBook G4 17-inch/1.67GHz/2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.5.7) 7200rpm-100GB HD,  iPod w/Video 30GB,  iPhone 3G 16GB