When a newcomer wins by attacking the cheap, ignored end of a market with a simpler good-enough product, then improves until it eats the incumbents from below.
Netflix shipped DVDs in red envelopes starting in 1998, attacking a Blockbuster customer the chain didn't care about: the renter who wanted obscure films and hated late fees. By the time Blockbuster noticed, Netflix was already pivoting to streaming and the cost structure made a defense impossible. Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010, Netflix passed 250 million subscribers by 2023. Christensen used this case repeatedly because it followed the disruption pattern almost exactly.
