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Originally Posted by da_jane
Conceivably, Sony could agree to apportion Borders some amount of profit but that wouldn't be significant compared to a physical book sale which has a 40% markup. In essence, despite having lower overhead, ebooks could generate only a tiny portion of what a physical book sale represents.
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Remember, the book itself pays royalties to the publisher, not Sony. I wouldn't expect Sony to charge anything close to the markup for a book, just to get their e-book format (with other free formats available, such a move would be ridiculous, as the bookstore would simply push the other formats and make more profit). So the cost to the bookstore should be the typical book markup, plus a
very small additional amount to Sony... not much different than the sale of a print book.
This seems to make more sense for Borders, as it allows them to stay out of the hardware business, and simply sell books.