Dell: build in China, support from India, charge for Australia
MS: create in US, support from Indonesia, repatriate profits through Ireland, Holland and Bermuda, charge for Australia.
Etc...
I especially love when these companies talk about local costs like warranties and staff costs and rents - as if they somehow don't incur these costs in the US.
Accepting, however, that AU costs are more than US costs, the problem is that the maths just doesn't add up. If providing support for a $200 USD copy of software (e.g. 'Office') costs $20 in the US and support rates for Australia are 30% higher, that's a whopping $20 x 30% = $6 extra dollars, NOT $200 x 30% = $60, and yet that is how it is treated - costs in Australia are 50% higher so that requires the product to be sold 50% dearer.
I can appreciate some kind of talk of economies of scale in HW, where a company provides a full range of hardware to a small region but the problem there is that they simply don't provide a full range to Australia. Go to Dell or Lenovo or HP's US sites and spec up something nice. Then go to the AU site and chances are you won't have as many configuration options - that's if the same model is even available here. Of course, it'll be at least 50% more expensive anyway even if you can get it . . .
With software it is just a joke and is a big middle-finger to Australians. I did some sums the last time I foamed about this and at that time Office 2010 Pro was available in Singapore for ~$400 AUD. On the Australian site, it was ~$500AUD.
Great except there is NO difference. The software, in both instances, was downloaded from server in Singapore (there was not AU data centre then) and supported from the Manila. The only difference was a localised website to purchase it from.
And they starting wringing their hands when people 'pirate' their software.
Don't get me started on Adobe . . .
Strangely, Apple are actually not too bad in this respect - perhaps because they're expensive everywhere.