Research in Motion (RIM) may be trying to drum up interest in its PlayBook tablet, but its efforts haven’t been completely successful.

[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]Writing for AllThingsD, John Paczkowski cites a report from RBC analyst Mike Abramsky where he tells clients that the PlayBook could sell four million units this year and more than six million in its first full year on the market.

As Paczkowski points out, that’s about half of the interest consumers showed in a similar survey when the iPad was released. Apple ended up selling about 15 million iPads in 2010.

Whatever the analyst’s predictions, RIM seems very confident in the PlayBook. When asked about the PlayBook playing catch-up to the iPad, RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie said he thought the PlayBook was ahead of the iPad.

“I think the PlayBook redefines what a tablet should do,” said Balsillie in December. “I think we’ve articulated some elements of it, and I think this idea of a proprietary SDK and unnecessary apps — though there’s a huge role for apps — I think is going to shift in the market, and I think it’s going to shift very, very quickly.”