[MickeyC]

The Penguin CEO is dead wrong about how a price is set. The price of an ebook (or anything else) is based on supply and demand. It is not set by the dictates of the seller as this guy wishes were true.

The seller will charge as high a price as he/she can. If demand is high and supply low, people will pay that amount. Look at how Apple was able to charge so much for the iPhone when it first came on the market. 37 inch High Def LCDs sold for $10K when they first came out ten years ago. Now, since supply is so high, they sell for a few hundred dollars.

If demand is not high or if supply is high and demand low, the seller will have to drop the price or get stuck with a high inventory.

Cinemas and the Sports industry have tried to dictate prices in selling tickets on-line. They used the same irrational argument this guy is trying. They claim that the buyer should pay for the 'convenience' buying on-line even though it is much cheaper for the industry to sell on-line. IOW, they have dreamed up a rationale to make you pay for saving them money. And it hasn't worked. Most people still line up at the box office. If the industry had passed on their savings to the customers, a lot more people would buy their tickets on their computer and saved the industry a lot of money.

EBook industry needs to wake up and realize this.