Microsoft has said that it is puzzled as to why people still use IE6, but will continue to support the browser that had its own funeral earlier in the month.

The comments, from Microsoft, came as the company unveiled its plans for Internet Explorer 9 at MIX10 in Las Vegas.

The new internet browser will bring with it a strong support for HTML 5, the new markup language for the internet, and therefore the promise of a more interactive and enriching experience for the user.

Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Internet Explorer at Microsoft, unveiled the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview including expanded support for HTML5, hardware-accelerated graphics and text, and a new JavaScript engine.

Showing a number of different demos that moved to trash Chrome, and Firefox in its speed and capability, Microsoft rounded off the demo with a show of the browser running 4 HD videos in a rotating carousel to highlight how we could scan videos in the future.

However, in a move that will somewhat confuse a lot of people, Microsoft has also published data showing that the current build isn't as fast as the current versions of Safari, Chrome, or Opera. It is, however, considerably faster than Firefox and its own IE8. 

"Internet Explorer 9 is the first browser to take standard Web patterns that developers use and run them better on modern PCs through Windows”, Hachamovitch said.

No details as yet when a consumer friendly version of IE9 will be out for the PC, in the meantime those interested should check out the Microsoft Test Drive site.

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