Shopify announced that it is investing in augmented reality applications by adding the small Primer team. Only an 8 person team.

Acqui-hires like this are difficult to judge from my experience.

On the plus side:

• Primer is only 2 years old. This is interesting tech-led by (I'm sure) interesting people with a vision for how eCommerce could change.

• Teams that are given free rein and allowed to innovate within a larger platform can have a big impact.

On the downside:

• The company has only been around for 2 years.

• Often a smaller company is fueled by only 1-2 key people and if those people cash out and leave (creatives often like doing new things, not filling out a roadmap they dreamed up 2 years ago) Shopify loses most of the value.

Curious:

• The other companies that have invested in AR are Facebook and Apple.

William Gibson famously said in 2003: “The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed." I believe that applies here. Shopify sees a future where a great many stores have AR applications, but merchants are slow to adopt. By accelerating that, it could stay ahead of growing competition in the space.