The iPhone 4 launched on Verizon in Feburary, but many customers are waiting to switch to the iPhone with the iPhone 5

Of Verizon customers planning to buy an iPhone in the future, many will skip the iPhone 4 and go straight for the yet-to-be-released iPhone 5.

According to a small survey by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, 74 percent of Verizon subscribers are holding out purchasing an iPhone until the iPhone 5 comes out.

“We believe that many Verizon customers made the decision to wait and purchase the iPhone 5 when it launches instead of buying the mid-cycle iPhone 4,” Munster said with regards to initial sales figures for the Verizon iPhone earlier this year.

The survey was conducted across 216 Minneapolis-based mobile phone users across multiple carriers.

Trends for the past year have shown that Android is up in popularity over the iPhone, despite the latter smartphone’s launch on Verizon. But perhaps as this survey indicates, a good deal of subscribers simply weren’t ready to jump on the iPhone bandwagon until the iPhone 5’s release.

Currently, rumors of the iPhone 5 are all customers have to go on. The phone is purported to feature a speedy A5 processor, an 8-megapixel camera, a flat metal back and curved glass front, and possibly NFC technology.

Most of the latest iPhone 5 rumors have pegged its launch sometime in September. But according to AllThingsD, we may not see the iPhone 5 until October.

Other results of the Piper Jaffray survey include a high iPhone-user retention rate (94 percent of current iPhone users expect to buy another Apple-branded handset in the future), and split feelings amongst Android users — 47 percent plan to stick with Google’s OS, while 42 percent plan to switch to iOS.

Obviously, 216 mobile phone users is a very small sampling, but if the pattern is consistent across Verizon customers, that could mean big news for Apple. “The iPhone’s market share could more than double throughout the next round of phone purchases,” Munster said.

As reported previously, close to 35 percent of consumers plan to purchase the next iPhone sight unseen, according to a recent poll. As far as Wired readers go, that figure was closer to 20% based on results from a Facebook poll.

What phone do you want to buy next? Sound off in the comments section below.