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I read an article recently that looked back at 1910. Part of what got my attention was that there were few cars. The top speed was 20 miles an hour and there were only a few hundred miles of paved road. Technology has changed that. The automobile has changed the way we lay out cities, changed how far we are willing to live from the workplace, changed just about every aspect of our lives.
E-books and e-publishing will change the way we interact with the "printed" word. Eventually prices will drop as mainstream publishers figure out how to make this work for them. I think the publishing industry does add value to the product beyond the printing process, the distribution, and the marketing. But, it remains for them to figure out how to price that value. In the meantime, as Alisa pointed out, they have investments in overhead that are part of the cost structure that won't go away even if they only issued e-books.
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