Amazon vs the Publishers vs the I Pad vs the Others

I am a life long student of the business world. I try to base my views on what is right/ethical, in my view, vs what is best for one group within a business industry ecosystem. I also know that business is cut throat and if you can take more that is called profits. If you don't someone else will.

We all know this is kind of B.S. There are happy healthy mediums if you can get rid of ego's and entitlements. When a major technology breakthrough disrupts a whole industry ecosystem, the dead weight gets exposed and there is a long slow march to oblivion if they don't change and follow a new path.

I truly feel the emergence of the E-Readers and Tablet computing are great develops for the planet. Especially for the environment. If we didn't need to cut down trees for general paper use it would be a major boon to the health of this planets air, water, and land. But there is sizable infrastructure and jobs in the timber, paper, printing/publishing and transportation industries. Just for books and magazines! Prior to E-Readers these businesses were vital to the book and magazine industry. But soon they will be just extra cost that is not needed. Its the words, the content that has value and we buy. We aren't buying paper or timber, though currently they are part of the delivery system of we want to buy the content.

Amazon is fighting Publishers over the price of he E-Books. Amazon just agreed with one big house that new books will be sold for more and they get 70% of the sell price. And there is this major panic with Apple coming into the game to ensure the higher revenues. And here is where the Publishers are deceiving themselves. What is a fair price for a new book electronically vs hardcover. What percentage of the $22 to $25 hardcover price is the cost of timber, paper, printing, manufacturing? If it came in at $8 and that cost was gone tomorrow the industry would see Revenues drop 33% and they would panic. But in reality the value and revenue for the content, content development, and marketing are the only core costs, everything else is bloat. How it is delivered and consumed might constantly change over time. But the variable non-essential revenue sources should not be what is vital to an industry's view success.