What do the lifecycle phases actually mean?

OT-BASE 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 OT-BASE product data indicates the time of last update so that the user can determine if the lifecycle information is accurate or might be outdated.