When bitcoin sorts out its scaling issues and start running smart contracts on Rootstock it will give eth competition. Assuming it all work of course 
There is nothing to sort out. it is a perfect decentralized crypto-currency. unbanked people in third world countries don't need Bitcoin. they have access to hardware AFAIK so they could mine alt-coins and sell them on the same exchanges supporting Bitcoin.
Let me think now $55 peeks fees or using Ripple and paying $0.001 per transactions
Can you charge even that $0.001 fee per transaction on people using Ripple? let me think now. you could charge $55 fee per transaction on people using Bitcoin. can you generate Ripple with any hardware?