It's a developer board. The product is the chips, not this board. This board is there mainly to get a dev board in the hands of people who might want to build cool stuff with it.
That they've actually managed to get it price competitive with a lot of cheap ARM computers, despite sporting a Zynq (ARM SoC with built in FPGA) is amazing.
They seem to actually have support from some of the hardware manufacturers. From Update #31 "Much gratitude goes out to the component manufacturers who really “got it” (Xilinx, Analog Devices, Intersil, Micron, Microchip, Samtec all deserve special thanks). Without their help we would be losing $100 per board!"
So, the backers are getting a Very Good Deal, with the hopes that a successful launch will make demand high enough to make the $99 viable with volume.
That they've actually managed to get it price competitive with a lot of cheap ARM computers, despite sporting a Zynq (ARM SoC with built in FPGA) is amazing.