So they started out as hardware product companies.. and remained hardware product companies. I don't see any examples of software services companies transitioning to product.
Who said anything about software service companies? I said design agency, which is not the same thing as a software service company. Sure, they use software to do their job, but that's not the most important part of what they do.
As for examples of design consultancies morphing into manufacturing companies, Cambridge Audio is one such example:
