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rlauzon is right in pointing out that there are differences in production expenses between print and e-books, and e-book production expenses are lower without a physical product. However, as long as the same house is producing the print books and the e-books, those print-related production expenses aren't going to come off the board, which means that the act of producing e-books will be an additional step for publishers, and incur more cost to them (mainly personnel activity involved in the conversion and maintenance of the websites).
Publishers make their big money on hardbacks. Then they print paperbacks to make additional money, and paperbacks, which cost less to print than hardbacks, don't cost the same as hardbacks. What paperbacks lack in cost, they make up for in volume, so they are still profitable for publishers.
E-books cost less to produce than paperbacks. However, publishers cannot yet depend on making money on the volume of e-books, so they cannot set their profit margins the way they set them on paperbacks... yet. But when enough people read e-books that publishers see measurable and dependable volume, e-books will be priced accordingly, somewhere below the cost of a paperback.
It could also come down to independents setting the market price first, forcing the big publishers to retool to match the price, or try to raise it again, and still make their profits.
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