Steve Jobs must be one happy camper this week. AAPL stock owners must be even happier. Apple’s stock slowly climbed higher and higher, peaking at a number that was enough to value the company as the second highest on the market at $267.5 billion. Apple’s stock was at $292.76 a share at that time, but has since slipped back down to $288.92. This again puts the company at a $263.9 billion, just below the $265.5 billion valuation of PetroChina. Exxon Mobil is still at the top of the charts.

While many people look at the overall computer market share numbers and see that Apple has been sitting at around 10% for a while now, there may be a reason for this. It is well known how expensive Macs can be compared to their PC counterparts, but there is a reason for this—and it’s working. There is only one Mac laptop for under $1,000, and Apple seems to be content with that. They don’t want or need to compete in this lower market when they are doing so fantastically in the higher market.

NPR recently ran a 30 minute segment with brand expert Martin Lindstrom. Martin conducted a 3 year, 7 million dollar study on marketing and its affect on the brain using an FMRI or “functional” magnetic resonance imaging machine. The results from the scans of more than 2,000 volunteers were very interesting—and astounding, in some cases.

Martin explains that when we are thinking of buying a big ticket item such as a computer or television, we are loyal to a brand until they sell us three bad products. For example, the majority of people will buy cars from GM until they get the third bad one. At that point, most of the people scanned would try a different brand (in this case, Toyota) until they are disappointed in the same fashion. Using the same methods, it was discovered that the warning labels on cigarette packs actually cause people to smoke 13% more than packs that do not have the label. How ridiculous is that?

So, how does Apple play into all of this? Simple…