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This is a great discussion. I side with those who believe that e-books will gradually build momentum, yielding a bigger catalog and lower prices. The publishers don't want to spend millions to build capacity for ebooks that right now are a tiny market, compared to physical books.
I disagree that publishers are or will become redundant. All the functions they perform will still be needed even when books become digital. Self-publishing has always been available to authors, as to composers, but it is not viable because of the lack of quality control and marketing capital.
Publishing is, contra Steve Jordan, a very risky business. Look at what is happening right now at Houghton Mifflin. It is understandable that the publishers do not want to launch themselves into outer space by committing a lot of assets to electronic publishing, when the country is full of giant stores selling paper books. Keeping the prices high is a way of assuring themselves that, while they may not make a ton of money on e-books, at least they won't be losing money, nor will they be sabotaging paper sales.
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