That is kind of where I am at now. I'm designing and will shortly be building the sequencing function my customer needs using an Arduino. Once I'm done with that, I plan on posting it for our industry to see. After that, though, I'm wondering if I should pursue things further. And if I do, whether it should be as a side hobby, or full time employment.
Well it sounds like you are describing you moving into a role of as an independent supplier of custom solutions for your customers. You can provide a 'black box', which is a combination of a microcontroller and your own custom interface components and software, for your customers. I suspect your customers are not too interested in what hardware you select or to understand your custom software/hardware, but rather that is solves a problem they are having at a price less then others can offer. So I don't see it as a Arduino saves the world type situations, you would be free to utilize an arduino or some other better future controller as tools you use to help solve your customers problems.
So mostly I think you are asking do we think you can make a success of this of this kind of endeavor if you chose to enter the field. I don't think Arduino is central to answering that question. It's more of are you ready to take the risks of moving from being a employee to being an independent businessman question. Or are you thinking of suggesting to your boss that he lets you move into this new role but staying an employee?
Lefty