A quick search brought up
this summary by Dave Taylor:
---------------
"...You can't just count printing costs, you have to factor in the cost of returns and warehousing. That being said, stand-alone edition costs are in the 15% range,
but the biggest problem with trade publishing and the reason it is a single digit net margin business is returns--which can run as high as 40%.
...
$50 list price book
$25 to publisher
-4
for printing
-5
for inventory and obsolence
-2-3 for royalties
-5 for selling and marketing
-5 for overhead and
warehousing
-1 for co-op
-2 for editorial and marketing
..."
---------------
Now, with ebooks, a publisher would realize very significant savings, not only on printing, storage and distribution, but also on returns.
The retailer's costs would be significantly lower, as well: no expensive leases on storefronts, no warehousing, less employees and related costs.
So, yeah, it DOES make sense for consumers to expect lower prices for ebooks.
And yes, in real digital life, "piracy" IS part of the "market" equation.
It can be argued, that once ebooks are more widely adopted, a savy publisher would speed up the release of an e-version of a popular title, lest an unofficial version be made available for free, and would keep the price acceptable to optimize ebook sales.