it seems like there aren't as many new ones coming out as there used to be. After they got good sample sounds and included bass and a lot of sounds and room for patterns and songs they now are selling new, models that have been around for a long time. But mainly software affected the hardware development.
yeah it seems hands on units is slowley becoming a thing of the past. granted there are some really good software programs out there like fxpansion and toontrack. but i still like the feel of those old sequencers.