What do the lifecycle phases actually mean?

OTbase uses the following four lifecycle phases for software and hardware products:

Active: The product is supported by the vendor, does not have a successor product, and end of life is not announced.

Phaseout: The product is supported by the vendor, but a designated replacement product is already available from the same vendor and an end-of-life/end-of-support date is announced.

End of life / end of support: The product is no longer sold or supported by the vendor. For hardware products, it might still be possible to purchase spares.

Discontinued: Support or spares for this product are no longer available.

Since the lifecycle phase of a given product will change over time (at least until the product has reached the discontinued phase), it must be updated every now and then. The OTbase product data indicates the time of last update so that the user can determine if the lifecycle information is accurate or might be outdated.