Well, this is really weird...
In a perfect world, ebooks would be released a few days before the hardcovers (they are easier and quicker to produce after all) and would go for less than the paperback version from Day 1. Paperbacks would always appear on the same day as the hardcovers so that people can choose which version they prefer and would not be "forced" to buy the ultra-overpriced hardcovers just because they don't want to wait another 6-12 months for the next book in a series that they have already been expecting for 2-4 years...
In a realistic, profit-driven world, ebooks should either appear on the day of the hardcover release for a signficantly lower price or together with the paperback, again significantly cheaper than the pbook...but I guess even that is a dream that won't come true in the near future...
The interesting thing is, that publishers really seem to be worried about ebooks...although they always say they are insignificant...strange world eh...
There is still a lot of silliness going on in this market, and I guess it is up to us customers, in cooperation with etailers like BooksOnBoard to make the publishers and authors see where the market is headed.
A little story to round things off:
I read a book-sample by Joanne Harris a while ago and wanted to get the whole book, so I checked and found it listed as "available as ebook" on her publisher's website. However, no etailer had it listed, release date was months in the past. I went over to Joanne Harris' Blog and asked her about it. She promised me she'd ask her publisher why the book was listed but not available. She also congratulated me on proving her wrong in the belief that nobody reads ebooks...that shocked me a tiny little bit because if authors think that way, how are we ever supposed to get ebooks into mainstream???
The end of the story was that the book finally became available as ebook a few wekks later, considerably later than was listed in the publishers' website...but better late than never?