"We're definitely a little ways away from the Jetson apartment," Steve Lefkovits, vice president of the National Multi Housing Council told GlobeSt.com. "It's been a tremendous disappointment to the industry." The council has just wrapped up a two-day Apartment Technology Conference in Dallas, where an estimated 600 owners, managers, lenders and IT providers had gathered to wrestle with the state of the industry.

The conference consensus is that IT companies need to collaborate and combine services to deliver on the promises that have been made to the multifamily sector. Lefkovits has been pressuring for bottom line accounting because he doesn't believe the industry is as inefficient as many IT providers claim. And, he emphasizes, some - such as procurement services - need to step back and consider setting up a point of presence with brick-and-mortar wholesalers instead of developing a point-and-click replacement. "We're talking about aggregating human behavior," explains Lefkovits. "People have existing relationships ... We have a very dynamic, competitive marketplace. I'd be shocked and amazed if the inefficiencies are still there."

Last year's optimism has faded, giving way to skepticism because too many promised products are still in development and roll-outs have been slow in coming. Many products, says Lefkovits, are still four to six years away from being placed into the marketplace. Meanwhile, the IT ranks are shrinking, with more expected to go out of business in the next few months as capital is exhausted and added funding fails to materialize. He estimates 50% to 75% of the IT companies across-the-board are suffering and broadbands in particular due to the market share under AT&T's control.