There are many companies currently doing that. One of them is HWTrek, an ecosystem with a community of mentors helping hardware startups from product development to mass production to shipping. The platform has elements of Alibaba and LinkedIn, and hardware developers can search for supply chain vendors, manufacturers, software/cloud vendors, VCs, etc. on it.
The difficulty of making connected hardware products and the failure of crowdfunded hardware projects/products are not new. The controversy surrounding crowdfunded hardware tend to come and go, and different allegations--from fraud to failure of products--take center stage each time.
Generally, these allegations come about because of the shipping/delivery delays, and there are a whole bunch of factors that contribute to the delays, such as unrealistic expectations on the part of the inventor -- what the startup hopes to deliver in a product (eg. 10 high specification features packed into a keychain sized device) versus what current technologies and materials can actually do (eg. 5 high spec features in a palm-sized device).
Another factor is the sophistication of a product. In general (from conversations with project managers who worked at Asian OEMs/ODMs), the typical time taken to develop and build a product (of similar quality to iProducts) takes at least 12-18 months. Unless your product can be whiteboxed (or a similar product has been done before), this is the typical minimum time-frame required to build consumer electronics. And if your product falls under a new category (eg. key-sized food scanners), then more time will be required to research, develop and find the right technologies/materials to build the product. The product is not impossible to build, but just requires more time to make it happen.
Of course, the inventor can turn to any factory in Shenzhen to manufacture the product (which may agree to a shorter manufacturing time-frame in order to get your business), but what you get eventually is a product that doesn't work well after investing a large sum of money (http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/07/how-one-kickstarter-p...).
The reason why hardware takes a long time to make and bring to market is because, unlike software, after the molding is done, the product needs to undergo many iterations, testing, certifications, blah blah blah... Also, before a product is shipped, at least over 30 key decisions typically need to be made and over 400 tasks need to be completed in sequence at different stages--and missing a task may result in weeks-long delay.
For software developers looking to make hardware and have no previous hardware-making experience, suggest you involve someone familiar with the manufacturing process and pitfalls right from the start (eg. product concept stage). The person could be an in-house or external expert, and by involving the person early, you can ensure that your design/specs/expectations are feasible --> in turn giving a realistic manufacturing time-frame.