Having worked at a number of hardware manufacturers, a lot of them really don't understand software at all. They look at software as if it were just another line item on the BOM: 12 qty 6-32 screw, 2 qty rubber gasket, 1 qty plastic case... OH AND 1 qty "firmware software thinggy," that we add to the product at station 244 on the assembly line. Go make some software that meets the requirements and spoon it into the product so we can ship. No thought about longevity, updates, security threats, intercompatibility with other devices and standards, UX, accessibility, the software ecosystem, nothing... Software is just another part number that's supplied by a supplier and bolted onto the "real" physical product.
So it's no surprise when software companies come in and eat this mentality for lunch when they decide to come up with a competing hardware product.
Your comment wonder me. As I hear from CS community like a mirror words - because semiconductor manufacturing is prohibitively expensive, cs becomes too abstract.
But my own exp, mostly confirm your words, even when I sure see just my side of whole picture and I'm attracting to explain my exp as regional specific (I'm in Ukraine, exUSSR, and people here conservative and share old USSR habits).
So it's no surprise when software companies come in and eat this mentality for lunch when they decide to come up with a competing hardware product.