> My point is that if you make a successful product, you're going to get cloned anyway.

If you're going to get cloned either way, how will you make selling your hardware a sustainable business?

I love hardware (robotics, incidentally) but I'm so hesitant to release a hardware product because of the inevitability and futility of competing against cheaper clones. I've seen it happen again and again in the nascent world of drone racing - somebody comes up with an innovative new design and there's a clone on Banggood three weeks later. Then most people just buy the clone. I don't see how it can be sustainable.