It's certainly not justified by the difference in component costs. My feeling is it's an attempt at price discrimination. For users running an office suite, web

It's certainly not justified by the difference in component costs. My feeling is it's an attempt at price discrimination. For users running an office suite, web browser, and not much else, even the lowest spec machine is plenty. They want to compete on price for those customers. Users doing media processing, scientific computing, or development are probably more willing and able to spend more on a laptop, so Microsoft is charging more.