He’s no Steve Jobs — that’s for sure — but Apple (AAPL) senior vice president Phil Schiller may have set a personal record for how much marketing buzz he can generate per ASCII character.

Responding to a request on Twitter, he let slip that the long-delayed white iPhone 4 will be available this spring.

By Monday morning his 94-character (including spaces) reply had generated more than four dozen news stories and blog posts and was one of the lead items on Techmeme, a closely watched tech news aggregator.

That’s nothing compared with what Schiller’s boss can do with a single e-mail, but pretty good bang for the buck nonetheless.

Also on Fortune.com:

• Waiting for the great white iPhone
• A white (iPhone) Christmas?
• Apple’s amazing, incredible Phil Schiller

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]