Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc., Palm Inc. and other technology companies may get an earnings boost after the Financial Accounting Standards Board approved a change in rules.

FASB, the U.S. accounting rulemaker, voted 5-0 today to let companies record revenue earlier from products that combine software and hardware, such as Apple’s iPhone and Palm’s Pre. Companies have been booking revenue in several quarters, usually for two years. The rule takes effect in 2011, though companies can adopt it earlier, the Norwalk, Connecticut-based body said.

“It’s not that aggregate revenue will change and it doesn’t signify any increase in business or market share,” said Robert Willens, founder of Robert Willens LLC, which advises investors on accounting and tax rules. “I don’t think investors will be all that impressed.”

Products that include software and hardware, such as so- called smart phones, are subject to the new rule. Technology companies said reporting revenue from sales over time didn’t accurately portray how such products are used.

The change might make some companies more attractive investments. No company “is going to be impacted by this rule as much as Apple in terms of percentage increase in earnings,” Barclays Capital analyst Ben Reitzes said in an interview. The change will help Apple’s price-to-earnings ratio and “that could look attractive to retail investors,” he said.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, supported the action. The change “will result in accounting that better reflects the underlying economics of the transactions,” Vice President Betsy Rafael, the company’s controller, wrote in an Aug. 13 letter to FASB.

Apple rose $1.02 to $185.50 at 4 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have more than doubled this year.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ian Katz in Washington at ikatz2@bloomberg.net; Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in New York at svaidyanath3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 23, 2009 16:23 EDT