Wensing, M.

The term “disruptive technology” was coined by Clayton Christensen, who has written several books on the topic. In The Innovator’s Dilemma he describes several disruptions in many industries in great detail. The scenarios he describes (which the OP is referencing by using the term “disruptive”) are not generic “here’s a company who won!” situations. They are very specific. Namely, a competitor introduced a new technology that was inferior to established technologies in many important ways, but which was vastly superior in at least one. And importantly, it was superior in a way that could not be “backported” to the mainstream technology.