Man, I kinda feel like embedded software is doomed. There are only a dozen or so companies where embedded software is a first-tier product for them that gets a lot of resources put into it. It feels like everything is moving toward using super low-quality Chinese drivers/firmware and really badly-designed microkernels (or treating linux like a microkernel) to squeeze all the functionality out of the OS and into bad managed software stacks.

Then again, any company that takes firmware engineering seriously can make devices 5+ years before Moore's Law makes it feasible for others, so maybe there'll always be room for us.