[jen20]

> In the old days before the iOS/Android duopoly there were no updates at all, and the few times they happened to be supported, it required the developer SDK to update the firmware.

Not quite. The phones I had for the four years before the iPhone came out were Treo devices running PalmOS, which got software updates installable via the host computer without any developer tools.

[pjmlp]

I don't know about those, given that they were not that relevant in my circles, so I never cared that much about their offerings.