Embedded devices used to be custom-made individually by hardware manufacturers as the firmware had to be created specifically for the chip soldered to the device. This prevented small companies and hobby developers from designing new products without cooperating with a big manufacturer, which was pretty challenging, especially for hobbyists.
However, our technology has improved significantly in recent years, which means that the chips running our PC and mobile phones have become almost as powerful as the proprietary devices produced by the big manufacturers. This has led to most manufacturers switching sides in order to use the ARM and x86 chips and, by doing so, reduce their cost on research and development. This also allows small companies or hobby developers to easily prototype their software on low-budget embedded hardware, such as the Intel...