Maybe a factor is Trade Agreements Act (TAA) Compliance.
Some Surfaces are manufactured for people and organizations who support free trade economies with democratically elected governments.

(Some factories are in countries with non-democratically elected governments.  The manufacturer may have to charge a higher price to get the devices assembled in a qualifying country, and for supplies of high-demand parts that are also assembled in such a country.)

How do they even sell this thing at double and triple the price of nearly identical Dell and Lenovo laptops?

Quote from: ariliquin on March 09, 2021, 06:01:16
I don't understand why Microsoft is wasting time by creating custom vesions of AMD CPU instead of going with the current core offering leading to better performance overall.

What the hell are you even on about? "creating custom vesions", what, like you think this is LucasArts Loom or something? Jesus.
They buy a palette of generic, "made-in-China" AMD processors, solder them in a sweatshop next building, then flash a BIOS that says "Special Edition". Here, can you sleep sound now? Has your mystery case been solved, chief AMD advisor?

I don't understand why Microsoft is wasting time by creating custom vesions of AMD CPU instead of going with the current core offering leading to better performance overall.