Email blasting worth it for small group?

I am currently part of a small team of people (<6) who are working on building a mobile application for release on a few of the popular mobile stores. We were deciding on ways of advertising and settled on social communication and maybe a few ads here and there. Then, after that was done, one of the people changed up the decision so that we would buy a list of peoples emails from a company and then blast out advertisements to them hoping to reach a few people from our demographic. I think this a bad idea, due to the amount of money it would cost compared to the amount of people we would actually reach that are within the demographic, and the possibility of legal trouble resulting from accidental misuse of the private emails. Am I right in thinking this, or is email blasting(spam) a legitimate form of reaching potential customers?

I feel that the best way to use social marketing is involvement. Find forums and groups were people who are likely to use your software congregate. Participate in the conversation there and build a reputation with the users. When the opportunity arises recommend your software. Do it genuinely, humbly and not as a sales pitch. Use Google to find people who are looking for solutions that your software supplies and approach people there. This process is slow but it gets people genuinely interested in you and then your product. If they like what you have to offer, they are more likely to recommend your software to someone else. This also helps with SEO and helps people interested in similar things find your product. An added bonus is that when people see an ad or hear about your product and research it, you will have a lot of positive feedback and information at the top of their searches.

I think that email blasting is not a good idea. You should go for social media marketing with platforms like Facebook, Google+, twitter and videos of your mobile application on YouTube. This will improve your online presence, SEO and visibility since everyone socializes online.
Then to reach out to your demographic. I suggest you put up small posters or something around your area including the shops where you plan to launch your mobile application. Rest is all word of mouth!
Good luck :)

Marketing by any how is useful.

But the harmful effect of marketing is that now days its treated as SPAM.
They best way to work out is Social Marketing.

Advertising using Specific websites.
for eg. If you have a Nokia apps, then you should contact OVI Stores to make your product there featured product.

Make sure that you join different Technology groups on Facebook and Google Plus. to promote your items there.

Get it reviewed from the guys in some IT Magazine ( Chip / PC Quest ).
They might add an article about you.

I would definitely pay money to advertise in IT Magazine, because those who buy are basically the IT Geeks who wants to know more stuff about Software / Hardware / Latest Apps.

So if these people starts using your apps definitely they will market it for you just by using your product.
Like chain marketing.

Cheers!!