In the US, the smart speakers by Amazon and Google command the sales, with an aggregated 97% share of the market's total. It’s pretty evident that Apple’s HomePod, which is powered by Cupertino’s digital assistant Siri and is limited to the English-speaking countries, is well behind its competitors and some huge improvements are needed for a future relaunch of the product. PatentlyApple reports that some new audacious features should come onboard in a forthcoming updated version of the device.

The HomePod of the near future could be controlled by gesture controls, in a way that everybody hopes will resemble more Minority Report than Microsoft’s defunct Kinect peripheral. The new speaker could also feature the new Apple’s smart fabric, with a tactile screen that will cover the entire surface of the device and give immediate visual feedback after it’s activated. But a smarter Siri is also on the plans: the digital assistant will not only be faster and more powerful, but also capable of understanding how a person is feeling, and to react accordingly to his mood. The “emoji Siri” would bring the man-machine interaction to a new level, but of course, for now, it’s all just patents, and hardly all the new innovation will be featured on the next version of the HomePod. “While Apple could deliver these ideas in a single major upgrade, I suspect that Apple will have these features trickle out over several years”, comments PatentlyApple.