iPhone 3G iOS 4 Fix "Coming Soon" Says Purported Jobs Email

We've learnt to be pretty skeptical about emails purported to be from Steve Jobs, but the prospect of an imminent fix for iPhone 3G owners with slow, glitchy and downright frustrating handsets after updating to iOS 4 is too good to be true.  Having heard that Apple were investigating the reports, a Mac Rumors reader emailed the CEO to ask if an official downgrade option was really in the works; according to Jobs' reply, there's a "software update coming soon."

"I've waited patiently through 4.0.1 and 4.0.2, looking for a fix that will make my phone work again. I've read the forums that advise me to jailbreak my phone or use some other method so I can downgrade back to a version of iPhone 3, however I'm not prepared to use a method that is not supported by Apple." Original email

As you might expect, Jobs' response is brief:

"Software update coming soon.

Sent from my iPhone" Steve Jobs' reply

However, it also falls short of specifying what exactly Apple plan on doing for frustrated iPhone 3G owners.  Many would prefer to simply downgrade back to iOS 3.1.3, but Apple could be readying an alternative iOS 4 install that will hopefully perform better on the older handset.