I expect it will make sense for ardunio users who want a migration path. As I understand it the maple people ported the ardunio software system and linked it to the required compiler.
The Maple has been around a long time. I'm sure it's been mentioned here before, but searching 'maple' gives me more threads than I want to sift through.
3v0.. I'm not dissing the arduino path... but the FEZ panda is also an arduino / netduino compatible board... and sits at 34 dollars it has the arm running at 72 mhz and a jtag connector for doing exactly the same... I'm just wondering why Sparkfun are selling both at such different prices.