Perhaps we've all been a little too spoiled by iOS.

Our iPhones are filled with gorgeous, hand-crafted apps that give us years of refinements and upgrades for less than the cost of a latte. We expect every interface to be refined and elegant without giving much thought to the time or energy that goes into it; and thanks to the relative ease of developing for iOS and its multitude of users, developers can mostly afford to do so.

But when it comes to the Mac, it's a different story. Apps may be fuller-featured and more powerful than anything in the iOS store, but Apple newbies — and even some OS 8 veterans — have a hard time understanding why apps for their MacBook cost 10 times more than the ones on their phones. The post-PC era can be difficult to navigate for Mac developers, especially for those looking to give their successful iOS app a Chrome makeover.

Just ask Dan Counsell, app producer and founder Of Realmac Software, makers of the slick, gesture-based to-do app, Clear.

"We spent around eight months developing Clear for Mac. ... We knew we couldn't sell it for 99 cents, low prices only really work on iOS because of the sheer volume of users. We have a large team of people to support, so if we don't charge enough for our work we'd go out of business."

With the first incarnation of Clear, Counsell and co-creator Milen Dzhumerov gave themselves a "tight deadline" of just three months, which helped keep the UI "clean and focused." But with Clear for Mac, you can instantly feel the extra time that went into it. It might look and behave a lot like its iOS counterpart, but there are distinct differences that make it feel like a robust desktop app, including keyboard shortcuts and support for multiple windows. The iOS simplicity still runs through it, however, so much so that you might have to resist the temptation to reach out and pinch the screen.

"After designing Clear for iPhone, one of the hardest things was coming to the Mac and knowing that a lot of the gestures just weren't possible or wouldn't feel right. For example, we had to add 'Click to Clear' for those users who don't have a Magic Mouse or Trackpad and can't 'Pull to Clear' like the iPhone.

"We tried a lot of things when bringing Clear to the Mac — at one stage it was looking more like a standard Mac App with a split view showing lists and tasks. However, it started to feel heavy and more complex and less like Clear, so we went back to basics and made it truer to the original iOS app."

For their troubles, Realmac initially targeted a price point of $14.99 for the Mac version of Clear, which was met with the usual pushback. Over at Mac Rumors, besweeet2's comment pretty much sums up the mood of the announcement thread: "It's practically the same as the iPhone version, which is $2, so they price the Mac version at $15? … They're practically begging people to pirate it."

Realmac Software's Dan Counsell says a market that demands iOS prices for Mac software makes Mac development less attractive.

And that, in a nutshell, is where the disconnect comes in. Counsell and his team couldn't very well flip a switch to make Clear work on OS X. It might not convince the iOS generation to open their wallets, but designing an app for the Mac is a painstaking process requiring subtle design tweaks, major interface changes and performance sacrifices along the way.

"Moving from iOS to Mac or vice versa is never easy, and I think the problem was compounded by the fact that Clear on iOS lacks any kind of UI chrome. In the end I think we managed to strike a great balance of maintaining a clean UI that's core to the Clear experience and adding just a dash of chrome to make it work on the Mac."

Counsell, who admits being "surprised" by the negative reaction, sees Clear's price wars — it's actually been sold at a reduced rate since its launch and is currently on sale for $6.99 as part of Apple's "Get Stuff Done" promotion — as a symptom of a disturbing trend, one that will result in less time time spent poring over intricate Mac applications.

"The real problem facing Mac devs is that consumers are now used to getting apps for free or paying very little for them. This, combined with the fact that Mac apps take longer to develop, make it a much less attractive platform to try and earn a living from."

Find Michael Simon on Twitter or App.net @morlium.