You have no direct knowledge to support what you are saying. You only know when Google started thinking about getting into the phone business because they purchased an outside company to do so.
And actually we don't know that Google was really thinking about getting into the phone business at that time. They were in the midst of this spaghetti on the wall buy up of all sorts of foundering and failing start ups. Some of which they still haven't done anything with. they might have bought Android thinking about something like, like a tablet computer or even a general computer OS
But your point stands. We have no direct knowledge of anything Apple is up to nor have we because as you note
Apple keeps any product they are working on as secret as possible until it is actually released.
But anyone with half a brain cell knew that they didn't come up with it the weekend before the announcement and given the complexity the notion that it was at least a good 2-3 years (thus before Google joined the board and perhaps even before the Android buy) in the making on a real level (rather than just 'playing around with the idea')
The real problem with the article is that Jobs is talking about something totally different and Page is trying to brush it off with his dates game.
Jobs comments are about Google choosing to make a phone that is in direct competition with the iphone. ANd this seems to be true. Early reports are that the Android based phones were poised to take on RIM and then, about the same time that Schmidt and friends would be privvy to Apple's ideas, they changed the Android OS to have an iphone like form factor, UI. They even copied the whole App Store notion. Page would like us to believe that they thought up all of this on their own but it's very unlikely. The trouble for Apple is that ideas can't be patented anymore than they can be copyrighted. Only the way they are taken from idea to reality is protected.
That said, Page's sour grapes doesn't cover up that the whole Android system has some major issues that are likely what's keeping it at least than 10%. At least in the US. Perhaps in a year or two they will get it sorted out, perhaps not. We shall see