Response #1: Have you considered permitting 30 days' notice from your customers, but requiring you to give something longer, such as 6 months?
Including a clause regarding transitioning of services to a third party when the agreement is terminated could also assist to sell the auto-renewal to your customers, but this would depend on the services you offer and whether they can be transitioned to a third party.2
Response #2: One alternative is to give only the client the right to elect whether or not to renew, and then add some variation of the following wording intended to allow the service provider the ability to change/substitute or discontinue services for legitimate business reasons: "Service Provider may, at its discretion, discontinue XYZ Services at any time during a renewal term by giving Client at least twelve (12) months' prior written notice of such discontinuation."
Variations of this concept can also include the ability of the service provider to terminate or make changes if their ability to continue providing the service is undermined by losing or changing a key third-party provider contract. For example: "In addition to the termination rights set forth in ____ of the Agreement, Service Provider may terminate the Service the event that its agreement with a licensor or third-party provider required for this Service expires or is terminated; provided however, that Service Provider shall use commercially reasonable efforts to extend or to replace the contribution required from such licensor or third-party provider with a substitute that is comparable in quality and cost, without undue changes to terms or pricing of the Service."
There may be other formulations, but the point is to establish that the service provider's termination right is conditioned on a longer notice period and/or on losing a third-party required contribution. The service provider should have the flexibility to change its business plans or respond to changing conditions, but normally (other than force majeure) would have a longer time horizon for invoking a termination.3
Response #3: You could narrow your right not to renew to two discrete situations: (i) product/service sunset, in which you could give a longer notice period 90 - 120 days, or (ii) if the regulatory obligations on your product/service change in a way that requires updates either to your subscription terms or your product/service. The downside of this approach is that you won't have a right to use non-renewal as a way to get subscribers onto new paper, and your terms may be quite dated and out of compliance with your own internal company policies after 5 - 7 years.
You may want also to consider whether -- if you agree to a one-sided auto-renewal provision (only the customer can decline renewal) -- whether you want to limit the number of renewal terms to three or four. Then the parties would renegotiate terms of renewal, but with the background of a relationship of some duration, which should ease renewal, but also allow you to present your then-current user agreement as the foundation.4
Response #4: We can understand that the manufacturer is dependent on the connectivity platform services in order to its products to function properly and the manufacturer does not want the service provider to terminate the services causing its products to not function property. However, the platform service provider should not be locked into the contract in perpetuity.
One option is to estimate how long it would take the manufacturer to switch to a new platform service provider or build their own platform. The parties could agree in the contract to a period of time in which the service provider will continue the platform services after termination as termination assistance. This termination assistance period gives the manufacturer essentially an off ramp from the highway to switch to a successor provider or build it themselves without service interruption for their products.
Another option is to give sufficient notice of non-renewal (prior to expiration) that would enable the manufacturer enough time to switch to a successor provider or build their own platform.5
Response #5: One thing to consider is whether or not these manufacturers have to pay you anything for the connectivity. You do not want renewal to occur if you are owed funds for a certain period of time.
I like the idea of a longer notice period on your part, and perhaps a shorter one on your customers' parts; that way they can find an alternative platform if need be.6