I believe most new technologies have a perceived usefulness and the design team thinks that if they build something for themselves, something that they - normal people that they are - would like, then it will work. However, budgets are tight, competition is high, time-to-market is a clock relentless ticking away the seconds during which time a competitor is gaining market share and shaving the edges of a nickel this quarter is seen as the best way to build "shareholder value". The user is somewhere in those intentions, design docs and project schedules but... if something has to get cut when time and money gets short (and it always done) it's the sticky problem of dealing with the end user.
What factors may be influential in motivating companies to apply more of the user centered approaches to the design of technologies?
If usability can demonstrably increase adoption of new technologies, confer a competitive advantage on the firm that does it best, and build brand loyalty, then companies would tend to be more inclined to do it. However, this requires a commitment from the corporate culture to driving for that kind of time and focus which costs a great deal of money from some very specialized people. It requires timelines that allows for prototyping, multiple iterations and challenging-to-organize usability tests with the target end users. This means the company must dedicate significant resources to R&D, and have a company-wide emphasis on innovation to support it. Few companies have the pockets deep enough and leaders who have sufficient vision to support this kind of approach. There will always be a niche for this kind of work and a market to support the high-end products that come from it; the rest will do knock-offs.
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