63% of Australian Samsung phone owners mulling switch to iPhone 5, survey says

Apple could win back some serious ground from Samsung with the release of its iPhone 5 this week, if a new survey from Finder.com is to be believed. According to the poll, 62.9 percent of current Samsung phone owners are planning to buy Apple’s latest handset.

Among the close to 1,400 Australians surveyed, 80.6 percent of them said they were planning to purchase the iPhone 5. I’m skeptical that the results accurately speak for the entire Australian population, but the figures do seem to hint at upcoming market share gains for Apple with the new phone.

The report noted that 64 percent of respondents said they would buy the iPhone 5 on a plan and 59.4 percent indicated they would switch carriers.

An earlier survey in the US found that one third of Americans planned to buy the device, with 32 percent of Android users intending to switch to iOS. A separate analysis of tweets sent during Apple’s media event unveiling the new phone discovered that its thinner profile was the most popular aspect of the new design.

We don’t have to rely on just surveys to learn that Apple’s new iPhone is the subject of intense demand. Apple itself announced on Monday that pre-orders for the device, which sold out in about an hour, amounted to 2 million units. The number was double that of advance orders for last year’s iPhone 4S, making the iPhone 5 the fastest selling device in the company’s history.

The new handset arrives on Friday in 9 countries and features an A6 processor, 4G LTE and a longer screen.

Samsung and Apple may be set up to wage seasonal battles for control of the smartphone market. The South Korean handset maker has followed a pattern of releasing its annual flagship device earlier in the year. Amid the buzz surrounding the iPhone 5 are hints that Samsung will release its Galaxy S4 next year at the Mobile World Congress event in late February. Sales of the Samsung Galaxy S III recently passed the 20 million mark and are expected to top 30 million by the end of this year.