Cryptonote coins are still in their early stages. Darkcoin has 4 months of development lead. Then there is the fact that a QT wallet already existed for Darkcoin to use since it is basically a bitcoin clone. Anyone that doesn't think that cryptonote coins will not be serious contenders if not leaders in anonymity are seriously underestimating them. I'd bet that you have taken at least a small stake in them.
Cryptonote isn't a real competitor there are too many limitations.
If anyone ever disputes receiving payment, you have no recourse. You can not generate a TX id without exposing your one and only private key exposing all your funds.
Also it is impossible to prune the block chain with cryptonote. This leads to a huge disk space requirement already rivaling Bitcoin's five year size.
In it's current form, CryptoNote coins are unable to be used as a currency until the above problems are resolved.