And the Surveys Say: People Really, Really Want the iPhone 5

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It's the day before the big not-so-surprise unveiling of the iPhone 5, and you know what that means: organizations the world over are releasing surveys purporting to tell us just how much people want -- nay, perhaps need -- Apple's latest and greatest device. The flood of information we've received suggests that Apple lovers are willing to go into debt and land in the romantic doghouse if it means they can get their hands on an iPhone 5.

CouponCodes4U surveyed nearly 2,000 people and found that even though 81 percent of the respondents can't afford the newest Apple devices, a full 51 percent nevertheless took out a loan or used a credit card to buy an Apple device in the past three years, according to The Street and ChipChick. Over a third had spent more than $1,000 on Macs or iDevices in the past year.

Things get even screwier in a separate CouponCodes4U survey cited by Josh Smith at GottaBeMobile; according to the cited report, 61 percent of respondents would give up sex for six months if it guaranteed they'd get early access to the iPhone 5, while 39 percent of males would give up an inch below the belt to get the newest iPhone before their pals. Amusingly, over two-thirds of the respondents said the reason they want a new iPhone is to ooze sex appeal to the opposite gender.

GottaBeMobile also pointed us to a TechBargains survey in which 64 percent of iPhone 4S users said they plan on upgrading to the iPhone 5, with around half of those planning to move up as soon as the newer version is available. Seeing as how most iPhone 4S users are still likely tangled in a two-year service contract, that means a sizeable chunk of Apple fans could be willing to either pay the full price of an iPhone 5 or break their cellular contract to get one.

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How big of an impact will the iPhone 5 have? A survey by Robert W. Baird analyst William Power found that 45 percent of respondents are eligible for a phone upgrade by the end of the year, and a full 45 percent of those people planned on switching to the iPhone 5. "Those percentages, if they held, could suggest 50 million+ iPhone 5 sales in the U.S. alone, well above current forecasts," Power wrote.

Meanwhile, the surveys from both William Power and TechBargains suggest that 4G LTE is a major wish for the iPhone 5, but a third survey by Piper Jaffray’s Christopher Larsen found that 47 percent of every day consumers say they don't need 4G speeds -- and most of them don't have a firm idea on what 4G is or who has the best network, anyways.

Which of these tea leaf readings will turn out to be true? We'll have to wait and see, but with the rumored launch date of the iPhone 5 just 10 days away, we won't be waiting for long.

This story was provided by Laptopmag.com, a sister site to LiveScience.