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To some extent you are correct it did put a dent in sales however it made up for that in the long run by publicizing the company and their products contributing more in terms of long terms sales then the short term profits. Are you more likely to go back to that electronic store in the future since you saw their products once for $0? An HP executive that I used to work with, he was a contractor for my company, said that HP will do that sort of thing on ocasion to publicize their products. However, HP will do it less often since the company is well known as it is. To a larger extent books sales are off as a whole wether you are talking about electronic or dead wood books.
What appears to be happending is that publishers are raising prices of paper backs with the eventual aim of making paperback and hardbacks cost the same. Years ago a typical hardback cost approximatly $25 and a paperback typically went for $8. While the harbacks are still typically that price the paperbacks prices have been skyrocketing with the intriduction of the premium paperback, which has no added value, is typically priced at $10. Publishers have been saying recently that they intend to raise paperback prices to around $14 with the aim of raising them to $25 such that paperbacks and hardbacks will cost the same. Customers have reacted by doing two things, stop buying all together lowering overall sales of books as a whole and buying more non-premium paperbacks which are still $8 but are getting harder to find. Myself I have a limit of $8 on the books that I buy as well as never paying equal or more for an electronic book then the dead wood book. An electronic book is required to cost less then its dead wood counter part.
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