I do both, so yes, there is scope of it, and good programmers who can work well with embedded are rare, compared with .NET code monkeys.
There are sites devoted to it:
http://www.embeddedrelated.com/showarticle/453.php[
^] and
http://hackaday.com/[
^] for example, but to be honest I'd start by getting an evaluation board:
Microchip[
^] do some good ones, and they have a good range of processors designed for embedded work. I'd also recommend ARM processors (you probably own a couple of devices with them in already and don't know it) - but the development tools cost put them well outside the "learning" and "hobbyist" price bracket :OMG:
Will it be difficult to learn? Dunno - I started with embedded after Uni, before PC's even existed, so it came naturally to me. Certainly, some people have major problems getting their head around concepts like "very limited memory" and "no hard disk". It'll be interesting to see if you can get the mindset needed.
Is it worth it? Yes. Unequivocally, yes. Even if you decide it's not for you, it will give you an insight into what goes on behind the scenes of .NET that will be invaluable.
Go for it! Spend a little money, and give it a try. Trust me on this, there is nothing in this world quite like the feeling when you get an LED to flash on and off repeatedly purely through your own code - there have been times when I have bounced round the room with excitement (to the total mystification of everybody else) simply becasue a new prototype board, with a brand new (to me) processor is actually doing exactly what I told it to do! (Even if that was only to flash an LED ON then OFF and repeat forever, the damn thing was
actually working!)
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