gmail IMAP contacts list

iMap only gives access to email -- not contacts

syncing your contacts is different than setting up and using an IMAP mailbox.
if you press the phone button icon on your iphone, you will see the contacts icon at the bottom, in the middle, that is where your contacts are stored.
In itunes you can manage which contacts will sync to your iphone. It will depend on which system you are on, if a mac, then your address book will sync with the iphone, if a windows pc you will have to sync through outlook 2003 or 2007. (in case you are using a windows pc here is a link you might find useful: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305845)

yes i understand. the way to get your contacts into the iphone is either 1) on the mac through address book, or 2) on a windows pc through outlook 2003 or 2007, or 3) via yahoo address book. there is not direct way to get your contacts in gmail into the iphone. i do not know of any direct way to sync your contacts between gmail and address book on mac or outlook on a pc. i do know there are rumors google may release a google contacts api that would allow developers to build an easy sync from google contacts to a host of other contact software - spanning sync is waiting on such an api to build a sync between address book on the mac and google contacts for example - but nothing straightforward and simple exists for the time being.

hope this helps.

You can get to contacts if you log into gmail through safari....
OR you can export your gmail contacts to a vCard file... then import them into "Address Book" or Outlook in windows and sync from there with iTunes.