Blog · August 7, 2026
A product lives for ten years: what series support really means
The series release is the moment a development project runs towards — prototypes passed, tests behind it, the assembly house manufacturing. It feels like the finish line. In fact it is where the longest chapter in the product's life begins: the years in which it works out there. We support series devices through those years — and this chapter has a work list of its own.
What comes up in the years after the release
Components disappear. At some point the first discontinuation notice hits the bill of materials — and depending on which part it is, the answer ranges from a last-time buy to a new edition of circuit and layout. How to keep that cascade small is a post of its own; here, just this: it will come.
Production asks questions. The second batch is not the first: a part is hard to get, the assembly house proposes a substitute, one lot behaves differently in testing. Somebody has to be able to answer these questions — with access to the state that is actually manufactured, not to a memory of it.
The states drift apart. After the second update the fleet is mixed: out there, not one firmware state is running but several. Which state runs on which device, and which fault is fixed in which state? Whoever cannot track that diagnoses every field fault twice.
Faults take months to surface. The interesting fault patterns do not show in the lab but after a winter in the field — rare, hard to reproduce, tied to conditions only the site provides. That is when it pays off what the device can report about itself.
And regulation moves. The Cyber Resilience Act will require a committed support period of at least five years, with security updates available for ten. A product without a maintained update path acquires a problem no press release solves.
What that means for the development before
Series support does not start after the release — it is built in before, or never: versioned states for circuit, layout and firmware, so every production and field question has a reference that can be looked up; an update path that survives the abort; components chosen for availability; and a device that can say from afar how it is doing. It is the same toolbox with which we take over other people's code bases — no coincidence: a good handover to the future looks exactly like a good takeover from the past.
Where firms differ
Many development houses are built around the project: release, handover, next project. With us, series support is a pillar, not a side business — we support devices that have been manufactured for years, and we have taken over series whose engineer was no longer there. A product lives for ten years, not until the series release; the only question is whether somebody is responsible during that time.
What about you?
Who answers your assembly house's questions in year five — and would you know today which firmware state runs on which device? Write to us — we are curious what was left lying around first after your series release.
Transparency note: This article was written with the help of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the author before publication. The review applies to the German original; this English version is a translation.