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Amazon Introduces Upgraded Kindle Book Reader - NYTimes.com

There are nuances in this article of the major book publishers sneering at the idea of widespread digital-format books in the same manner that the major record companies did with digitally-distributed music a decade or so ago.

Notable quote: “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.”

It sounds eerily familiar. Print publishers may not have been paying attention to the music industry. That is particularly strange when the conglomerate Bertelsmann (owner of Random House and BMG) should probably know better by now.

Don’t fight the new technology and new pricing strategies. Adapt. Eke out a small profit initially on these digital formats, grow an efficiency and a market base, and say goodbye to your old, inflated price-point strategies.