Hardware is hard. Manufacturers in China have a MOQ that tends to be high, and the chance of them screwing you is high. And the process of hardware is harder.

Hardware is hard. Manufacturers in China have a MOQ that tends to be high, and the chance of them screwing you is high. And the process of hardware is harder. You have to handle bootstrapping, provisioning, firmware, updates, configuration, etc. You have to worry about the vendor substituting other parts in (yes, it happens more often than you'd think). Component failures. Heck, sourcing components is apparently a PITA. Before, it used to be $1 in components = $10 in end-user cost. I think that multiple is smaller now. But with all that said, hardware can make money. And it provides lock-in for you. I'd love an article about how you got the hardware side up and running: finding a manufacturer, features, design, etc.