If your competence and competitive edge is long-lived hardware, why not open source the control software? Are there any downsides to doing this? Perhaps incorporating some binary blobs to hide proprietary IP where / if necessary.
Industrial stuff has traditionally been proprietary and high priced. I suppose the volume is so low they have to charge such high prices for the development. I was once quoted 15,000 USD for a windows based HMI from a laser manufacturer.
Also, to may, "open source" is still a phrase which to them means anything from low quality to "pirated". Seriously, someone thought open source was cracked pirated software.
But the good news is a lot of the protocols and standards are opening up and open source stacks are common now. Many manufactures are also using Linux and even FreeBSD. But their software remains proprietary.
