NEW YORK — Apple Inc. doesn't see "any ceiling" to market-share gains for its Macintosh computer, either in the U.S. or globally, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said yesterday.

"You're seeing Macs all over the place," Oppenheimer, 45, said during a presentation at the Citi Investment Research Technology Conference in New York.

Apple's personal-computer shipments soared 38 percent in the U.S. last quarter, vaulting it to third place, according to research firm Gartner Inc. Apple has capitalized on the popularity of its iPod media players and iPhones to attract buyers to its computers. The fact that the Mac operating system now allows users to run Microsoft Corp.'s rival Windows software also has won over customers, Oppenheimer said.

The company will continue to price its products at a level that generates "a reasonable margin, while not so high as to create an umbrella for our competitors," Oppenheimer said. Apple ranks behind Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. in personal computer sales, according to Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner. Macs account for almost half of Apple's revenue.

The company wants to bring the iPhone to China, Oppenheimer said, without elaborating. Apple is "very happy" with the profit margins on the new iPhone 3G model, which debuted in July, he said. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs plans to get the Web- surfing phone into 70 markets by the end of 2008, up from six countries earlier this year.

Oppenheimer declined to say what products Apple would announce at an event scheduled for Sept. 9, telling conference attendees only that the company has "new things in the product pipeline that we've very excited about."