I imagine this has to be a loss leader/marketing feature, where the hope is very few will use it but those who do will result in "iPhone saves 12 year old Boy Scout lost in the woods!"

Apple doesn’t really do loss leaders.

Loss leader isn't the proper term in this case. Think of this akin to the health-scare clips they've been showing in the past few years when talking about the Apple Watch (like today).

The number of Afib/high heart rate detections are miniscule, but serves as great marketing. Good enough for me to order one today.

According to the CDC, 805,000 people have heart attacks in the US [1].

I suspect it’ll be commonplace for many/most people will have some kind of health monitoring device.

[1]: https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm

The Apple Watch doesn't currently check for heart attacks, though, and makes a point of telling you that every time you use any of the heart-related functions.

It can detect atrial fibrillation, but that's a different thing from a regular heart attack.

Of course they do. There are lot so free apple tv and apple music deals. Included with the iphone.

> Apple doesn’t really do loss leaders.

Their work on accessibility disproves your assertion.

Money isn’t the issue.

But they also don’t want to commit to a price until they have a couple years of experience under their belts.

Whatever the terms of the deal is, hitting certain benchmarks is part of it.