I've definitely been surprised by the sentiment here lately that iOS devices are more secure. I don't know enough about iOS to evaluate that claim, but my impression of phone security is to basically assume it's been unlocked by someone even if most apps are successful sandboxed
Google sells advertisements, Apple sells... access to its store involving a hefty 30% tax.
Goggle's interests are aligned with the surveillance capitalists, Apple is either competitive (see Facebook) or ambivalent.
Apple can differentiate itself by trying to sell the security angle and hurting the surveillance of people in their app ecosystem doesn't hurt them. Comparatively, I would say Apple has a nontrivial advantage in security, though I wouldn't make a broad statement that iOS is "secure".
