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You have to wonder what the logic is here. The audience for ebooks and ereaders is avid readers and readers on the go. These people bought their readers because they LIKE to read. In short, they are your best customers. By throwing them a file that costs probably nothing to produce (I would imagine that publishing software probably can easily generate e-books these days) for $9.99, you aren't destroying the publishing business, you're free up extra cash for them to sample other authors.
Want to make that $9.99 price work for you immediately Simon and Schuster? Tack on sample chapters of similar works from other authors to the end of the e-book.
I understand that $9.99 may eat into $25 sales, but how much of that $25 is actually profit?
I think the real issue for publishers is that they see the game has shifted. If ebook readers take hold, then it becomes possible for popular authors to take them out of the middle completely. For the cost of editing the book and formatting it (which could easily be handled outside the publishing world), Stephen King could toss his book on Amazon and take in probably 85% of the sale price.
Just ask the classic rock musicians who saw themselves dropped from major labels. Many have indicated that moving to the "self-publishing" route for their music, they're seeing a lot bigger checks from their sales, even when they sell a lot fewer copies.
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