No ripple is not the next bitcoin, it is a good coin but it is a centralized coin and bitcoin is a decentralized coin. The fact that ripple is decentralized is one of the things that is holding back the coin since people find it hard to actually trust centralized coins because they are controlled by people somewhere. Ripple is a good coin on its own but it is not on the level of bitcoin
Position is not something that interests me most, any coin Im investing just need to have the potential to become something big and thats all. I cant be investing in any coin that doesnt show signs that it will get to higher level in the future. From what Im seeing, Ripple is very good but it wont beat Bitcoin for the first position in the market.