Google Inc., just won’t give up on its ambitions to unseat Windows from the desktop, no matter how hopeless it’s Chromebooks might look to business power users. It’s latest plan? It’s teaming up with VMware Inc., and Nvidia Corp., to bring some of the most demanding desktop apps to its low-cost, browser-based laptops.

VMware already has existing relationships with Google and NVIDIA. It offers the BLAST client to bring Horizon View apps to Chromebooks, and it uses NVIDIA’s vGPU kit to virtualize GPUs and dole out power to virtual desktops, helping to make things like CAD apps run on the Chrome OS.

Now, it’s partnering with both companies to combine those elements so even the most demanding and ‘graphically rich’ apps can be run on its lightweight Chromebooks.

Google demonstrates what’s possible on one of the higher-end Chromebooks available – the Acer Chromebook 13, released earlier this month and priced at $279. The 13.3in laptop comes with a Tegra K1 CPU, hums along at 2.1GHz CPU, and packs a 192-core GPU. Take a look for yourself:

All of this is possible thanks to a new generation of “VMware BLAST Performance technology”. It’s said that at least part of the new code runs directly inside the Chromebook’s firmware.

The companies are also talking up a better experience for those running Microsoft Office in a virtual desktop, which is a much more compelling usecase of the technology. The technology isn’t ready to run yet though – NVIDIA says things will kick off with an early access program in Q4.

This alliance looks to be a little bit more than a just a gimmick. Google points to a better VDI experience for any app, while NVIDIA will be keen to demonstrate the power of its Tegra K1.

Still, it’s unlikely that animators and architects will throw away their Windows lappies or MacBooks any time soon. The technology makes it possible to bring the apps these types of people love using to a mobile device, but for the most part these users probably won’t want to tear themselves away from their banks of monitors. Fact is, it’ll probably take a lot more than this to change the mindset that it’s impossible to do any kind of meaningful work on a Chromebook.

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