As it struggles to keep up with demand, Apple offering discount on Mac Pro lease program to big buyers

While shipping times for the new Mac Pro through Apple’s online stores continue to slip and scalpers are doubling prices on Ebay, we’ve learned that Apple is offering a special discount on large orders of the Mac Pro for business customers.

Apple is reaching out to select companies with an offer of up to 20% off leases for the new Mac Pro through Apple Financial Services. The deal is only available to business customers in the U.S. on orders of $25,000 or more on a 24 month lease and it appears Apple is only sending out the notice (above) to certain partners. Depending on configurations that would of course require a handful of new Mac Pros or more, but the discount represents big savings for businesses and hosting services like MacProColo.net that require that many Mac Pros.

What’s not clear is if orders would ship before the estimated April delivery quoted for regular customers on Apple’s site…