A Study on the Current State of Cyber Apartment Construction and the Desirable Development Course of Cyber Apartment in Korea

Abstract

The purposes of this paper are to analyze the current state of cyber apartment construction in the allied industries and to seek a desirable development course of cyber apartments. Through this study, the author intends to compare five cyber apartment consortiums currently being operated and relevant cases of apartment sales, and to contribute to establishing desirable Korean-style cyber apartment model by suggesting a development course. By analyzing the construction of the five cyber apartment consortiums, which are iCitiro, CVNet, ezVille, Techno Village and Joy&Life, I identified the service contents such as house maintenance, cyber community, electronic commerce and home automation, and investigated four relevant cases of apartment sales. A cyber apartment should be a concept of convenient residence resulting from the improvement of information and telecommunication technology and high-tech electric home appliances as well as an essential element for pleasant life. For the purpose, it is required to improve the quality of our life by establishing a standard model of Korean-style cyber apartment suitable for our environment and to prepare an advanced solution through which all the people are able to adapt themselves to the information society. In addition, policies such as subsidy payment, cyber function installation and information education should be prepared to resolve the digital divide between the possible beneficiaries of information and the lower income bracket who are unable to share the benefit of information society or residents at traditional houses that are not equipped with the functions of cyber apartments. On the other hand, rather than establishing a new cyber apartment consortium, constructors not joining cyber apartment consortium and companies concerned with telecommunication and contents should be led actively to join the five existing consortiums, so that they may benefit from the economy of scale. Furthermore, it is considered necessary to ease competition among the existing consortiums for preventing redundant investment.