Apparently the book industry failed to notice anything about the difficulties that the music industry had with online distribution and pricing. Idiots.
“We do not agree with their pricing strategy,” said Carolyn K. Reidy, chief executive of Simon & Schuster. “I don’t believe that a new book by an author should ipso facto be less expensive electronically than it is in paper format.”
Mr. Bezos disagreed. “E-books should be cheaper than physical books. Readers are going to demand that, and they are right because there are so many supply chain efficiencies relative to printing a paper book,” he said.
Unbelievable. Ms. Reidy, you win the idiot of the day award. Printing, paper, and physical distribution have no cost? Or you think you can charge a (huge) premium for electronic content? But Bezos is right, users are not all idiots, they know about "supply chain efficiencies" even if they don't know the term.
In other news, you (reader) and I are smarter than the CEO of Simon & Schuster.
