OEMs have different release cycles to maximize their sales; you see the same thing with blockbuster movies releases and television programming. If there's one

OEMs have different release cycles to maximize their sales; you see the same thing with blockbuster movies releases and television programming. If there's one high end CPU from your favorite CPU manufacturer that comes out each year, guess what? I guess it seems $280 more expensive for the same SoC, but consider that Pixel has plenty of custom silicon in it to justify a higher price (than simply the SoC). The camera literally relies on it.