I did not say anyone was going to keep revenues under cover.
I was talking about not exposing strategy.
From my seat we are on the same page.
From an accounting stand point if they have revenue it has to be reported. Anything less in not acceptable. Only in some cases when revenue is based on future events or when ongoing service is tied to hardware can revenue from said hardware be reported in future periods.
You can't hide from GAAP.
But you can mix revenue from different customer sources to not fully show your source of revenue.
But when you recieve money or have a calim to cash you have revenue. (if you get cash for future service or sales it's call deferred revenue and is recored as an asset until the time the service or hardware is delivered)