As he said, degrees matter. By which I guess he means differences of degree.
The two companies involved (Google, Apple) have a fundamental difference in their business model. One involves you and your private data as the product; the other does not.
If what you care about is privacy, I really don't think iOS is appreciably better than Android. (Not marginally or theoretically - I mean practically).
If you're looking to be as private as possible[0], you should either use a custom ROM of Android with Privacy Guard and with Google services disabled (or use something like Replicant or FirefoxOS, if you're comfortable straying from the two dominant mobile OSes).
[0] As private as possible while still carrying around a tracking device 24/7, mind you (cell phones constantly report your location to your carriers, who are not at all modest with this data)
The two companies involved (Google, Apple) have a fundamental difference in their business model. One involves you and your private data as the product; the other does not.