Big successes stems from big failures.  Apple is one the biggest and most thriving technology companies that has been going strong for three decades now, and it has not come this far without its fair share of flops. The company’s failures are not only limited to the products they released in the past, but also with the attitude that is somewhat whimsical and self-contradictory.  However, as complicated as the factors that held Apple together all these years, not one person can argue that the slim and sexy iPad isn’t an extraordinary device, and the Apple brand is a powerful one.

Accounting the company’s previous fiascos, they’ve royally messed up a couple of designs during the 90s. The 1998 USB Mouse, nicknamed ‘the hockey puck,’ was a beauty but it failed miserably at ergonomics.  We also have the gorgeous yet over-priced 20th Anniversary Mac with a $7500 price tag and the dysfunctional G4 Cube.  Apple got too carried away with aesthetics and forgot that the product actually has to function in order to sell.

Character-wise, Steve Job’s authoritarian attitude is also a trademark of Apple. He’s got his hands on the company’s micromanagement to make sure everything is done the Steve Jobs way.  If you want Flash in your app, go to Android.  If you want porn, go to Android. If your iPhone calls keep dropping, you must be holding the device the wrong way.  Perhaps this same attitude was what led him to be thrown out of the very company he founded, because of disagreements on where to steer Apple in its early days.

After the overthrow, Jobs smartly invested in Pixar, and founded NeXT.  Twelve years after straying from Apple, the company begged Jobs to come back.  Turns out, they needed his vision and leadership, failures and all.  Though Apple has had occasions of contradicting its own standards, this hurdle has played a major role on how Apple managed to not only survive, but thrive all these years.

The tablet-giant is a stereotype when it comes to startups.  When a small startup delivers something innovative, they can meet their own series of obstacles, especially when marketing something for the consumer market.  Such was the case with Apple’s biggest flops in the 90s—the Pippin, the Newton MessagePad, the Macintosh Portable.  They’ve also been known to make a big fuss on small matter.

Back in 2004 and 2005, publishers Think Secret, AppleInsider and PowerPage were sued by the company for publishing news about Apple products that were yet to rollout. Of course, Apple cannot do the same thing at this day and age. Just how many websites are they going to sue for speculating that they will be releasing an iPhone 4S and an iPhone 5 this October?

As far as Apple’s recent failure is concerned, MobileMe is probably way up the list. The service operates at $99 a year to compete with BlackBerry’s service to sync contacts, calendars and email to the iPhone masses.  Unfortunately, however, it was dysfunctional and has suffered way too many outages, that catapulted Jobs to a level of mega-rage. It was Apple’s overzealous activity during the same week the service was launched that exacerbated the matter, including the release of iPhone OS 2.0, the activation of thousands of iPhone 3s, and a the opening of the App Store.

But looking back at Apple’s downfalls, we can only recall the famous Jobs quote to “be foolish” and stay hungry.  It’s a mantra that’s driven Jobs in his own career, and an ethos that’s spread across an entire company.  As consumer technology looks to a future without Jobs, it’s time we reflect and learn from his failures, which so often borne great achievements.