At $100 each for just the systems, I doubt they're making any money from the Kickstarter. They will make a few $100k from the higher levels, though. What they

At $100 each for just the systems, I doubt they're making any money from the Kickstarter. They will make a few $100k from the higher levels, though. What they're doing is funding the initial build (fixtures, test rigs, plastics molds, etc) and build hype / excitement. I assume retail prices will be higher, probably in the $150 range, when they'll make decent margins on the hardware. Their volumes will be much higher (probably 2 orders of magnitude) than Panda / Beagle boards (Pandas sell for $182, Beagle xM for $150, both are profitable). They'll also probably offer "services" consulting with developers to help them get the most out of the SDK which will be an alternate revenue stream. No screen, no battery, no mobile phone radio, no requirement for physically small size. All allow quite lower hardware BOM costs than equivalent phones / tablets.