J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz indicated yesterday that the world's second-largest PC maker -- Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) -- would be facing "revenue offsets" due to its high exposure to PC sales in the enterprise (business) sector. While this is not exactly new news, it still rings new. Dell's high exposure to the PC business and its relative weakness in just about any other product industry will hurt its revenue plans this year, and possibly longer.

Why a downgrade now? Moskowitz indicated that 2009 will be a weak and turbulent year for the PC business, and Dell has almost every bit of its exposure in that area. From a market category perspective, the $700 laptop to the $10,000 corporate server -- and everything in between -- will get hit this year. Unlike competitor Hewlett-Packard Corporation (NYSE: HPQ), Dell does not have a division that can subsidize its PC business. Its only business is computers (of all kinds, of course). Moskowitz's ratings downgrade from neutral to underweight underscores this notion.

PC manufacturers never let a moment pass up where they can seemingly one-up the competition by using meaningless marketing claims. The "World's Fastest" and "World's Most Secure" taglines are so hokey that it's amazing we all don't buy PCs at the local flea market. So, when Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) recently said that it made the "World's Most Secure Notebooks." Chinese competitor Lenovo had a problem with that. What exactly does that claim mean, anyway?

This isn't the first time for a meaningless claim to be used in PC land. Sure, one of Dell's systems may be the "World Most Secure" in a certain environment with a certain arrangement of software, but to use that implied moniker to describe your entire product line is ridiculous. Apparently, consumers and business decision makers believe these pitches of manufacturers. The funny thing is that it makes sense for all PC manufacturers to use illegitimate claims. Why? Because the PC industry is a commodity one. What else is there to differentiate products?

No matter how much PC company CEOs harp on "we're better at this, we're better at that," it doesn't matter. Almost all PCs are like a gallon of milk; you choose one and you move on. Service options after the sale are the differentiators, not the hardware that was most likely made by one of a handful of Asian contract manufacturers anyway. Even the high-and-mighty Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has been accused of using claims that sound too good to be true, such as "the world's fastest, most powerful personal computer" -- to which Dell promptly complained.

It's no surprise that Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) wants to catch back up to rival Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) as the world's leading PC vendor. With those bragging rights come contracts and deals, among other things, and right now, HP is hot, while Dell is not.

So, even as HP continues to sell very well in the U.S. retail sector while Dell is just beginning to test the waters, the world's second-largest PC maker is taking its market share action plan to Japan, looking to overtake NEC as Japan's top PC vendor. In a non-surprise, the company wants to do it by offering a good product selection at retail stores and with custom colors on its products (my guess: laptop PCs only).

Right now, the bulk of Dell's sales in Japan come from corporate customers, similar to how its business has been in the last half-decade in the U.S. market. But, with those sales stagnating a bit and with more consumers venturing into retail stores to buy instead of clicking around a website, Dell had no choice but to attack Japanese sales with a different approach. Sadly, it's years overdue. Dell is quite a bit behind the curve in terms of how to balance its corporate sales versus consumer sales (globally), but at least it's making the effort now instead of 2008.

Dell was so successful with direct sales -- to consumers and corporate customers -- that it apparently let arrogance rule the day, as competitors like HP and Taiwan's Acer were racking up huge numbers in retail stores, where Dell did not even exist. Compound that problem with the fact that laptop PCs are killing desktop PCs in sales in almost every market, and one could see why Dell fell behind. Looking at a standard Dell laptop PC in 2006 was as boring as burnt toast, even as the competition was getting stylish laptop systems into the hands of retailers everywhere. Dell did pass Fujitsu as Japan's second-larger PC vendor in the quarter ended June 30, but stepping ahead of NEC will be no easy task.