Last month, The Consumerist sparked an interesting debate about ebooks, and why publishers and their customers don't see eye-to-eye about fair pricing of ebooks.

The debate came to a head when publishing expert Michael Cader wrote that, in a nutshell, people who can afford to buy ereaders can afford to buy ebooks at just about any price.

And that's the kind of mindset that makes me feel the publishing industry needs a smack over the collective head.

Following that argument to its logical conclusion, people who drive BMWs should pay more for gas than those who drive Hondas, and those with larger houses should pay more for the IKEA furniture they use to fill those homes.

In other words, it's a completely bogus manner of determining prices.

One of the reasons I bought my Kindle is because I buy a LOT of books. And it didn't take me long to figure out that books are cheaper in the ebook format. Therefore, I can save money in the long run, and buy many books.

Now, that's not to say there aren't some down sides. Just this weekend I bought another copy of "Neverwhere" because I realized that discussing it at my book club in the ebook version, as opposed to a paperback that I can skim through immediately, would be a pain. And while the portability of the Kindle, and its huge storage, has made it invaluable while traveling, don't think I haven't noticed the high incidence of typos and troublesome formatting.

And here's the salient point of The Consumerist article:

"Maybe a customer can pay more for a digital book, but why should he? Currently, nearly all the value of the ebook format comes from the device, not the publisher. Portability, frictionless purchasing experience, syncing across multiple registered devices--all of that is provided by the device and the retailer's back-end."

Hear, hear. 

(Photo by foxumon on stock.xchng)