‘There are no SQL Server instances or shared features that can be updated on this computer’

Problem:

Why when I try to instal SQL Server 2008 SP1 I get the following error message:

There are no SQL Server instances or shared features that can be updated on this computer.

Resolution:

Make sure you are not trying to install SP1 onto a an unsupported version as in this case where SQL 2008 SP1 was being attempted to be applied on SQL 2008 R2.