Perhaps that Google's Nexus release itself was timed to steal Apple's thunder (the date of which has also been known well in advance)? I'm sure something like this is the case, though we can, of course, speculate all day long about who is trying to steal whose thunder.
The real explanation probably is simply that both have devices that they want to release in time for the holiday shopping season, and it does not do either of them any good to have a new, competing product on the market, dominating the media coverage. If their competitor's product is out there being talked about, they want to make sure their own product is mentioned in the same breath. Who is stealing whose "thunder" is just a subjective spin that we put on the events as observers.
I guess he meant that since apple ipad devices sells many orders of magnitude more than nexus devices, Apple can't be trying to steal Nexus's thunder; if anything it should be other way around.
Personally I have no opinion one way or another. They are all after your money and we here bitching about who is good at it. I am still happy with my three year old phone, and it does pretty much everything I need.
