I tend to agree with Mr. Bert. The same has happened with me, and I can name the manufacturer. My programmer was from HI-LO Systems (or Tribal MicroSystems in USA).

But I can think of some technical reasons why the manufacturers upgrade the hardware (or model). For example, before the launching of LV devices, the previously designed hardwares were sufficient to support the devices of that age. But there was no way that LV devices could be programmed on those old programmers.

So when there is a situation where an upgrade in software can no more support new devices, then a hardware revision is a must and there is no more software upgrades for old models.

Otherwise, universal programmers aren't like sports cars that change every year.