I don't see how that is any better then my Aiwa unit and my iPod. As long as you have an aux in you can just plug in the iPod with a mini cable and use it in the car....nothing special. Thats what I do with my iPod.
the alpine unit fully intergrates with the ipod. you are able to control, browse, search, and so on using the alpine unit. best of all, since it's fully intergrated, you can use the remote of the alpine unit to control the ipod. in reality, you can put the ipod in your glove box and still have full control of it. unlike the aux input, it only receives audio.