LAS VEGAS -- A year removed from the debut of Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft released a platform preview of IE9 during the second day of its annual MIX10 developers conference, showcasing a version it promises will be consistent, powerful and long on HTML5 capabilities.

"We saw how HTML5 enabled a whole new class of applications," Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Microsoft's IE group, told attendees here Tuesday. "We quickly realized to do it right, which is our intent, our focus was more around designing what HTML5 apps will need so they will feel more like real apps than Web pages."

To make it happen, Microsoft is relying on high-performance graphics chips and other PC hardware to accelerate the delivery of graphics, video and text so developers can begin building the most powerful and rich applications possible in HTML5.

"Developers, raise your expectations," Hachamovitch said.

Of late, developers could have said the same thing to Microsoft's army of software engineers.